Tipoff

The goal

Find all of your agency’s agents before the rival agency finds theirs, and never reveal the trap.

The roles

• The Handler sees the key: which words are Cinder’s agents, which are Cobalt’s, which are bystanders, and which is the trap. On the board, the key shows as tinted cards with a mark on each word: ● Cinder, ■ Cobalt, ✕ the trap.
• The field agents see only the words. They read the Handler’s tips and choose which words to reveal.

Solo, you play one Cinder seat, Handler or field agent, and the computer plays everyone else: Marlow and Juno for Cinder, Vesper and Rook for Cobalt.

A turn

1. The tip. The Handler gives one word and a number, such as HARBOR 3: three words on the board connect to HARBOR. The word must be a single word, and it can’t be a word still on the board, contain one, or sit inside one.
2. The guesses. The field agents reveal words one at a time. Tap a word once to mark it, then tap it again, or press Reveal, to check it.
   • Your agent: it counts, and you may keep guessing.
   • A bystander: your turn ends.
   • The other agency’s agent: it counts for them, and your turn ends.
   • The trap: your agency loses at once.
3. The bonus guess. A tip for 3 gives three guesses. If all three are right, you earn one more, the ★ bonus guess, perhaps for a word from an earlier tip. The guesses box counts down and lights up when the bonus is open. A tip for ∞ allows any number of guesses until a miss.
4. End turn. After at least one guess, the field agents may stop at any time.

The first agency to have all its agents revealed wins, even if the other agency revealed the last one for them. The agency that goes first has one more agent to find.

Keyboard

Tab to the board, then use the arrow keys to move between words. Enter or Space marks a word; press it again to reveal it. Escape clears the mark. Tab on to Reveal and End turn. As Handler, type your tip, set the number with the − and + buttons, and press Enter to send it.

Rule options

• Board: Small (4 × 4), Classic (5 × 5), Large (6 × 6), or Grand (7 × 7). Bigger boards use shorter words.
• Trap rule: Trap, one trap that loses at once; Tripwire, three traps, and each one ends your turn and reveals one of the rival’s agents for them; or No trap.
• Double agent: one word is an agent for whichever agency reveals it first. It counts as one of yours, and you keep guessing.
• Words: every word, or one pack: Nature, Places, Science, Home and food, Culture, Sports and play, or Spycraft.

Pass and play

Friends share one device. Each agency picks a Handler; everyone else is a field agent. Between turns the board is hidden behind a cover, so only the right people look: the Handler’s key shows only after they confirm, and it hides again when the field agents take over. Cobalt can be played by more friends or by the computer. Between friends, any single word is a fair tip.

Tandem

Two partners share one agency, one board, and two keys. Each key marks 8 agents, and 2 of them are on both keys, so there are 14 to find in all. Each key also hides 2 traps: one is on both keys, and the other sits on one of your partner’s agents.

1. Partners take turns giving tips. Your key shows on the board; your partner’s never does.
2. A guess is judged by the tipper’s key. A bystander rules that word out for the tipper only: on the other key it may still be an agent.
3. Find all 14 agents within 9 turns. Each tip uses a turn. Revealing a trap loses the case.

Play Tandem solo with Juno as your partner, pass and play with a friend, or choose Play a friend online: share the room’s code, and each partner plays on their own device and sees only their own key. Online, the turn ends when its clock runs out, and resigning or leaving loses the case for you both.

Tips

• Small tips that land beat big ones that don’t. A safe tip for 2 is often better than a risky one for 4.
• Before you tip, look for words the tip might also suggest: a bystander costs a turn, a rival agent helps them, and the trap ends the case.
• Use the bonus guess to pick up a word left over from an earlier tip.
• The Case log lists every tip and the words it revealed, coloured by what they were.

Questions

Why won’t the computer take my tip? The computer’s field agents only know the words in Tipoff’s word list, about 3,000 of them. Start typing and the tip box suggests words it knows. Between friends, any single word works.

How do statistics count? A case counts once it closes, with Classic and Tandem kept apart. Classic cases between friends count as played, not won. Tandem partners win or lose together, so a Tandem win counts in pass and play too. Online cases stay out of this device’s statistics.