← Back to the game

Guides › What is a puzzle box? How to solve one

What is a puzzle box? How to solve one

Published October 16, 2026.

A puzzle box is a closed case that opens only once you solve a series of mechanisms and clues. The idea is old: from Japanese boxes with secret drawers to escape-room props, you always have to understand how the object “thinks” before it opens.

Daily Box, also written DailyBox, is the digital version: a new puzzle box to open in your browser, for free, every day. This guide explains what is inside and the method that works.

A Daily Box puzzle box seen from the front: three dials, rotation arrows around it, the layout at the bottom right and the inventory at the bottom of the screen.
An online puzzle box: you turn it, zoom in on the mechanisms and keep what you find in the inventory.

What is inside a puzzle box

A puzzle box combines three ingredients. Mechanisms first: dial codes, keys, drawers, levers, scales, gears. Clues next: engraved plates, symbols, blinking lamps, legends, message fragments. And a chain: each solved mechanism gives an object or a piece of information that unlocks another, up to the final lock.

In Daily Box, everything you need to open a box is inside that box: no outside knowledge is required, only observation and logic. Some boxes contain other boxes, always in a chain.

The method to solve it

Start by going around the box: a clue is rarely on the face of the mechanism it concerns. Then zoom in on each element to read it closely, and note in the notebook whatever might help later: a symbol, a number, a legend.

Finally, cross-check the information. A symbol engraved on one face makes sense thanks to a legend seen elsewhere; a number of lit lamps gives a digit of a code. When nothing moves, an object is often still to be picked up or a face has not been looked at.

Online puzzle box or the real thing?

A physical box is handled, an online box can be replayed and shared: everyone gets the same box on the same day and can compare their time. Daily Box measures your time, adds 15 seconds per failed attempt and offers hints on four levels, from a nudge to the full solution.

To learn, the game's “Learn” section offers short guided boxes, one per type of mechanism, that count for neither the streak nor the stars.

Where to start

Open the daily box on the home page, or start with the basics tutorial. Monday and Tuesday boxes are short, weekend boxes are the longest. One hint per day is free.

Practise in the game

The game's tutorials, with no clock and no penalty, let you practise this subject:

Read next

Open today's box