Guides › Stars, clock and hints: managing your score
Stars, clock and hints: managing your score
Published October 16, 2026.
Opening the box is good. Opening it fast and cleanly is better. Here is how the score works, and how to decide when to use a hint.
The clock
The clock starts at your first move on the box and stops during the pause, when the tab is hidden, or during an ad. Each box has a reference time, which is that of a player discovering it.
Stars and gears
You earn three stars if you open the box within the reference time, two within double, one beyond. Each star is worth 10 gears. Mistakes add 15 seconds each; hints add time too. Games outside the daily box (yesterday's, replays, tutorials) count neither for the streak nor for gears.
The four hint levels
Hints are graded: the first adds 30 seconds, the second 90, the third 3 minutes, the fourth 5 minutes. The third gives the answer to a code, or highlights the next gesture; the fourth plays everything. Seeing a solution (level 3 and above) caps the box at two stars.
If several steps are possible, you choose the one you want help with; the one on the face in view comes first, and a finished module leaves the list.
A free hint
One hint a day is free on the daily box, and one per box in a free game. The next ones are unlocked with gears or, if an ad is offered, by watching it. Offline, this option does not exist.
When to ask for help?
A rule of common sense: as long as you have a lead to check, keep going. If you have been going round in circles for more than two minutes on the same module, take the first level, which only costs 30 seconds and often puts you back on track. Keeping levels 3 and 4 for desperate cases keeps the cost down.
Practise in the game
The game's tutorials, with no clock and no penalty, let you practise this subject: