How to play Code Breaker

What you need

Code Breaker is played with coloured pegs. There is a hidden code of 4 pegs, made from 6 possible colours. You also need a row of small clue pegs for each guess: dark ones and light ones.

On paper, you can play with coloured pencils, or with numbers instead of colours.

The aim

Work out the hidden code, colour by colour and position by position, using as few guesses as possible. Most games give you 10 guesses.

Making a guess

Choose 4 colours and place them in order, from left to right. This is your guess. Then check it to receive your clues.

Reading the clues

After each guess, you get up to 4 clue pegs:

• A dark peg means one of your pegs is the right colour and in the right place.
• A light peg means one of your pegs is the right colour but in the wrong place.
• No peg for a colour means it is not in the code at all, or not as many times as you guessed.

The clue pegs are not placed in any order. A dark peg on the left does not mean your left-hand guess was right. Working out which peg the clue refers to is the heart of the game.

An example

Suppose the hidden code is red, blue, green, yellow and you guess red, green, white, white.

• Red is in the right place: one dark peg.
• Green is in the code but in the wrong place: one light peg.
• White is not in the code: no pegs.

So your clue is one dark peg and one light peg.

Levels

Level	Pegs in the code	Colours	Repeated colours
Easy	4	6	No: each colour at most once
Normal	4	6	Yes
Hard	5	8	Yes

Every level gives you 10 guesses. Each colour also has its own shape (such as a circle, triangle or star), so you can tell the pegs apart without relying on colour alone.

Repeated colours

In many versions, a colour can appear more than once in the code. Each peg in the code earns at most one clue. If the code has one blue and you guess two blues, you will get only one clue peg for blue.

Winning

You win when your guess earns four dark pegs. If you use up all your guesses, the code is revealed and you can try again.

Common variants

• Bulls and Cows uses a secret number of 4 different digits. A bull is a right digit in the right place, and a cow is a right digit in the wrong place.
• Harder versions use 5 or 6 pegs, or 8 colours.
• Word games ask you to guess a hidden word, with letters marked in a similar way.

Tips for beginners

• Start with two colours. A guess like red, red, blue, blue tells you clearly about two colours at once.
• Change one thing at a time. If you change just one peg, any change in the clues tells you about that peg.
• Keep track of each colour. Note which colours are definitely in, definitely out, or unknown.
• Check every clue. Before each guess, make sure it fits all the clues you have had so far.
• Do not waste guesses. A guess that cannot possibly be right still costs a turn, so make each one count.