Brain Test: Tricky Puzzles

What is this game?

Brain Test is a set of twenty-two lateral-thinking puzzles played in order. Each one is a short riddle whose obvious answer is usually the wrong one; solving it means reading the wording, and often the layout, more carefully than it first invites.

You answer by clicking or tapping, so it plays the same on a desktop and a phone. Progress runs level by level from puzzle 1 to puzzle 22, and clearing the last one completes the game with a fanfare.

There is a score, and it moves in both directions: solving pays points, while asking for a hint or guessing wrong takes some back. That makes a clean, hint-free run worth more than a brute-forced one.

How to play

1. Read the puzzle carefullyThe trick is almost always in the wording or the picture. Take the puzzle literally before you take it the way it wants to be taken.
2. Answer by clicking or tappingInteract with the element you think is the solution. A correct answer advances you to the next level; a wrong one costs points and lets you try again.
3. Use a hint if you are stuckOne hint is allowed per level and it costs points. Use it when you are genuinely stuck rather than reflexively, because a hint-free solve is worth more.
4. Finish all twenty-twoClearing puzzle 22 completes the game and plays a fanfare. Your progress and score are saved as you go, so you can leave and return on the same device.

Controls

Click / Tap

Select or interact with the puzzle solution

Hint

Reveal one clue for the current level, at a cost of 20 points (once per level)

Sound toggle

Mute or unmute the synthesised cues; the setting is remembered

Scoring and results

The score

Each solved puzzle adds its base value (100 points by default). A hint subtracts 20 and each wrong attempt subtracts 10, and the score is floored at zero so it never goes negative. A perfect score therefore belongs to a run with no hints and no wrong guesses.

Level progress

The current level, the levels you have completed, hints used and total mistakes are all tracked, so the game knows exactly where to drop you back in and what your run has cost so far.

Completion

Reaching level 22 sets the game as completed and triggers a celebratory fanfare. There is no timer and no leaderboard - the reward is the solved set.

What this game tests

• Lateral-thinking and careful-reading skill across 22 escalating puzzles
• Whether you can resist the obvious first answer that each puzzle baits
• How efficiently you solve - a clean run scores far higher than a hint-heavy one

Limits worth knowing

A browser can only report what the platform gives it. These are the honest boundaries of this page, so a result is never read as more than it is.

• Progress is stored only in this browser, under the localStorage key rtk_brain_test_puzzles_v1. Clearing site data, private browsing, or switching browser or device starts you over - there is no account behind it.
• There are twenty-two puzzles. This is a fixed, curated set, not an endless generator, so once you have solved them the challenge is your time and hint count, not new content.
• The click, wrong, success and fanfare sounds are synthesised with the Web Audio API and can be muted; audio is a cue, not a requirement.
• The score cannot go below zero, so a difficult level cannot bankrupt a run - but it also means repeated wrong guesses stop hurting once you hit the floor.

Tips for a higher score

• Suspect the wording first. Most puzzles hide the answer in a literal reading of the text or the arrangement of the screen.
• Save your one hint per level for when you are truly stuck; a hint-free solve keeps the full 100 points.
• If you want a top score, slow down on the early levels - a wrong guess costs the same 10 points whether the puzzle is easy or hard.

Troubleshooting

Related documentation

• Play GameEscape the RoomA ten-minute point-and-click escape room: six chained mechanisms, an inventory you can combine, three hints and a score that ticks down while you think.
• Play GameSpin the WheelA customisable decision wheel with 2-50 options, cryptographically fair picking and a session history.
• Play GameReaction Speed ChallengeA multi-round reaction timer with four difficulties, four game modes, false-start protection and a combo multiplier.
• Play GameStack TowerDrop a sliding block onto the tower below it. Land within four pixels and the block survives whole; miss and it gets trimmed to the overlap.