Introducing Zero In: A Daily Math Logic Puzzle
Say hello to Zero In — a brand-new daily puzzle game from the team behind Griddle, and the first one in our lineup that swaps letters for numbers. Zero In is live and free to play today at thegriddlegame.com/zero-in, and it's linked from the Play dropdown at the top of every page across the site.
What Is Zero In?
Zero In is a daily math logic puzzle. You're given a starting number and a small pool of single-digit numbers from 1 to 9. Your job is simple to describe and surprisingly tricky to do: use each number in the pool exactly once, combined with any of the four basic operators (+, −, ×, ÷), to reduce the starting number to exactly zero.
Every player gets the same puzzle on the same day, and each difficulty level has its own daily puzzle. Pick an operator, pick a number from the pool, and watch the running total update. Keep going until every number is used — if the total is zero, you win. If not, the pool resets and you try again, with no penalty beyond the clock ticking a little longer.
Sequential Operations, No PEMDAS
One important rule up front, especially for the math-fluent among
you: Zero In resolves operations sequentially,
left to right, exactly as you enter them. There's no order of
operations, no invisible parentheses, no PEMDAS surprises. If
your running total is 10 and you do − 4 × 2, the
result is 12, not 2 — because the game subtracts first, then
multiplies.
This changes the puzzle in subtle and interesting ways. You're not really solving an equation; you're planning an order. The same numbers and operators can reach zero in some sequences and overshoot wildly in others.
Three Difficulty Tiers
Zero In ships with three independent difficulty levels, each with its own daily puzzle, its own stats, and its own streak:
- Easy — three numbers in the pool. Great for your first coffee of the day.
- Medium — five numbers in the pool. The sweet spot for most players.
- Hard — seven numbers in the pool. A real logic workout, and the search space gets big fast.
Switching tiers is a single tap, and your progress on each one is tracked separately. Many players will do all three every day.
Speed Is the Score
Unlike Griddle's point-based scoring or Morph's chain-length scoring, Zero In is measured in one dimension: how fast. The timer starts the moment you make your first move and stops the instant your running total hits zero. Your goal every day is a cleaner, faster solve than yesterday — or a faster solve than the friend you just shared your results with.
Failed attempts don't cost you anything beyond the time spent, which is the point: the only way to play faster is to think faster. We've found that players settle quickly into a rhythm of scanning the pool, spotting a promising bridge of operations, and committing before they second-guess themselves. It's a very different headspace from a word game.
Stats, Streaks, and Sharing
Zero In keeps track of your best solve time per tier, how many games you've completed, and your current daily streak — all stored locally in your browser, no account required. When you're done with a day's puzzle, a spoiler-free share card lets you post your time without revealing the solution.
Where to Play
Zero In lives at thegriddlegame.com/zero-in and you'll find it in the Play dropdown at the top of every page, right next to Griddle and Morph. It shares Griddle's dark theme and its "open the site and play" philosophy — no app, no login, nothing to install.
Zero In is in beta right now. We're watching how people play and tuning the daily puzzles, difficulty curve, and UI based on feedback. If something surprises you — in a good or bad way — we'd love to hear about it.
Play today's puzzle. See how fast you can zero in.