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Scoring strategy: when a hint is worth it

Every game pays 500 points plus 100 per digit, plus a time bonus that melts away as the clock runs — and a hint quietly eats into all of it. Here's the math, and when reaching for a hint still makes sense.

What a win actually pays

Score starts at 500, plus 100 for every digit in the code — so a 4-digit Normal win starts at 900 before anything else is added. On top of that sits a time bonus worth up to 400 points at 10 seconds or under, decaying in a straight line down to 0 once you pass 300 seconds. Your final score never drops below that base 500 + 100-per-digit floor, no matter how many hints you burn.

What a hint costs

A hint fills in the cell you have selected. You pay for it with an ad or 100 points, and the game also deducts 200 points from that round's score. So the real cost of one hint is 200 points off your score, plus either an ad or a 100-point fee to unlock it in the first place — up to 300 points in total if you pay with points both ways.

Do the logic first — it's usually cheaper

Most “stuck” moments resolve with one more pass over the clues, not a hint. Take this 3-digit code:

1. 738: nothing is correct, so 7, 3 and 8 are out everywhere.
2. 870: 8 and 7 are already out, so the one correct digit is 0, and it is not in the last spot.
3. 206: two digits correct; with step 1, 6 is out, so 2 and 0 are in. 0 isn't in the middle (step 2) or the first spot here, so it must be first overall; 2 is in but not first here.
4. 614: one digit correct and in the code but wrongly placed — 6 and 1 are already ruled out, so it's the 4, not in the first spot.
5. 682: exactly one digit correct and well placed — 6 and 8 are out, so 2 sits in the last spot, which also fixes 4 in the middle.

Working through it took a minute, not a hint — and it kept the full 300-point base intact plus whatever time bonus was left.

When a hint is actually worth it

A hint pays for itself in two situations. First, late in Expert's 7–9 clues, when two digits both satisfy every remaining clue and you're genuinely guessing between them: a wrong guess can cost you the whole round, so 200 points to lock in a win beats a likely loss. Second, when the time bonus is already gone — past 300 seconds there's nothing left to protect, so a hint only trades the ad or 100-point fee for a finish instead of an abandoned game.

A hint is rarely worth it early in a Normal or Easy round, where re-reading “nothing is correct” or “in but wrong spot” almost always closes the gap for free.

Daily Challenge: the retry math

A Daily Challenge retry costs 120 points, flat — no time bonus or digit count involved, since it's a fixed 4-digit code. That's cheaper than two hints, so if you've picked apart most of the clues and just slipped on the entry, a retry is usually the better 120 points to spend than a hint-assisted limp to the finish.

Put it into practice

Crack the Code is free on iOS and Android. A new Daily Challenge waits every day.