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Numbers vanish

Numbers appear on a grid. Tap 1 and the rest go blank — then tap where 2, 3, 4… were, in order. One more number each level.

  • Memory
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

Look at where the numbers are, then tap 1. Every other number disappears at that moment; tap the blank cells where 2, 3, 4… were, in order.

The look before your first tap is the whole game: the clock covers it and the taps together, so spend most of it looking (or set Time pressure to Off and look as long as you like). Each level adds a number, without end.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises taking in a layout at a glance and recalling it. Gains are at this task, not memory in general.

Learn

How to get better at numbers vanish: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Find 1, then follow the numbers in order with your eyes — 1 to 2 to 3 — as if drawing one line across the grid. A route is one thing to hold; a dozen scattered numbers are a dozen.
  2. Run the route through once more, end to end, before you touch anything. The look ends at your first tap, so this is the moment to learn it.
  3. Tap 1. Everything else goes blank; tap along the route you rehearsed at an even pace, without stopping to doubt each cell.
  4. Get the start right before you worry about the end: only the unbroken run of right taps from 1 counts, so one wrong tap early costs everything after it.

Techniques and tricks

  • Trace the route

    Join the numbers in order into a path and remember the path’s shape — “across the top, down the right side, back to the middle”. Shapes hold better than a list of places.

  • Chunk in threes

    Split the route into runs of three or four and give each its own little shape: 1-2-3 a triangle in the corner, 4-5-6 a line down the middle. Rehearse chunk by chunk.

  • Code each step as a move

    Remember where each number is from the one before: “2 is two right of 1, 3 is straight below 2”. Moves are easier to replay on a blank grid than absolute places.

  • Anchor on edges and corners

    Numbers in a corner or on an edge are easy to find again on a blank board. Start each chunk from one of them, and count cells from that edge, not by feel.

    e.g. “5 is in the top row, third cell from the left” survives the blanking; “5 is up there somewhere” does not.

  • Say the tail last

    The end of the route is the part your taps reach last, after the most time has passed. Make your final rehearsal before tapping 1 a run through the last chunk.

As the levels climb

  • Every level adds exactly one number, without end. Nothing else changes but the board, which grows so that at most about half its cells hold a number: 4 numbers on 4×3, 8 on 5×3, 12 on 6×4.
  • Up to about seven numbers, one traced route and one rehearsal usually hold. Beyond that, chunk the route in threes or fours before you tap, and rehearse the chunks in order.
  • The clock covers both the look and the taps: 4 seconds plus 1.5 seconds for each number. Each extra number buys 1.5 seconds; spend most of it looking, since tapping a learnt route is quick.

Traps to avoid

  • The neighbour slip: tapping the cell beside the right one. The blanks all look alike, so place each number by counting from an edge or corner as you learn it.
  • Two close numbers taken in the wrong order: 6 and 7 side by side, tapped 7 then 6. When two numbers touch, note the direction between them: “6, then step right”.
  • Tapping 1 too soon: the look is the whole game, and it ends the moment you tap. Do not tap until you have run the whole route once.
  • An empty cell is a wrong tap. Cells that never held a number are on the board too, so a guess between two places is a guess between a right tap and a wasted run.

How to practise

  • Set “Time pressure” to “Off — untimed” while you learn to trace and chunk routes, then put it back to “Normal” once the look comes quickly.
  • After a miss, read the “They were at:” line — 1 B2, 2 C1 and so on — and draw the route you should have seen on the grid in your mind.
  • Set “Numbers at level 0” a little below the count where you start to fail, so the first levels warm you up rather than waste the session.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

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