ScatterboxFire a beam
Tap any square on the edge of the grid. The beam travels in a straight line until something invisible changes its mind.
Find the atoms
you cannot see.
Scatterbox hides a handful of atoms in a grid. You fire a beam in from any edge, watch where it comes out, and reason your way to what must be inside. No reflexes, no time pressure — just you and a puzzle that always has an answer.
How to play
Read what came back
The beam is absorbed, bent, bounced back, or passes clean through. Each result rules out places an atom could be hiding.
Place your guess
Mark every atom you think you have found and open the box. Fewer beams means a lower score, and a lower score is the good kind.
The four results
Everything the box will ever tell you.
Four outcomes, and no hidden rules beyond them. Learn these and you have learned the whole game.
Miss
Straight in, straight out the other side. That whole row is clear.
Hit
The beam never comes out. It ran into an atom head on.
Deflection
Passing an atom on the diagonal turns the beam ninety degrees away from it.
Reflection
It comes straight back out the hole you fired from. Either an atom sits against the edge right beside that hole, or two atoms turn it back at once.
Questions
Before you start.
Do I need to know any physics?
None. The four results on this page are the complete rulebook, and the app shows them again the first time each one happens to you.
Is there a timer?
There is no time limit — take an afternoon over one board if you like. Your score counts beams fired, not seconds spent. If you do want to watch the clock, an optional timer can be switched on in Settings.
How big do the boards get?
The Board of the Day is eight by eight, and its atom count climbs through the week — three on Monday and Tuesday, four midweek, five on Friday, and a ten by ten with six atoms at the weekend. In Free Play you set the board yourself, from four by four up to twelve by twelve on a phone and sixteen by sixteen on an iPad or tablet. Nothing is locked.