Targets

Hard Targets puzzles

Hard targets mostly take four steps, with only a handful of ways to make them. Now and then the only way needs a division, usually when all four large numbers are dealt.

Practice gives you puzzles you haven't solved yet, as many as you like, and keeps your best time without hints. Every target is checked by a computer, and its par is the fewest steps that make it.

How to play Targets

1. You get six numbers and a target between 101 and 999.
2. Combine two numbers at a time with +, −, × or ÷. They're replaced by what they make, and you can use that in the next step.
3. Every result has to be a whole number above zero: no fractions, no zero, nothing below it.
4. You don't have to use every number. Make the target exactly to win.

Tap a number, then an operation, then another number. The first flies into the second, and the result takes its place, ready for the next step. You can also press 1 to 6 for the numbers and + - * / for the operations. Undo has no limit, and Ctrl+Z takes a step back. Every target can be made.

Each puzzle has a par: the fewest steps that make the target, worked out by a computer. Your time is what counts on the leaderboard. If you're truly stuck, you can give up and see a way to make it, but on the daily puzzle that counts as a loss.

Solving tips

• Get close first. Multiply a big number to land near the target, then fix what's left with the small ones: for 512, 5 × 100 is 500, and 12 is easy to make.
• Work backwards. Ask what the target is a multiple of, or what it's one step from. 512 is 8 × 64, and 64 might be 75 − 11.
• Keep the small numbers. They're the ones that fix a near miss at the end, so don't spend them too early.
• Stuck? A hint shows the next step of a short way there, and when the target can't be made from the numbers left anymore, it tells you how many steps to take back.