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Inkwell

A refined ink-and-paper match puzzle. Each sheet gives you limited strokes — clear matching marks, collect the gilded ones, and keep the page clean before blots creep in and ruin it.

▶ Play InkwellTap or click

How to play

Inkwell is played one sheet at a time, and each sheet gives you a limited number of strokes. Tap a cluster of touching marks of the same silhouette to clear it in a single stroke; the marks above settle down and fresh ones flow in. Score as much as you can before your strokes run out.

But the ink has a life of its own — every few strokes it spreads, seeding new marks and the occasional blot. Keep the page clean and you'll earn a tidiness bonus when the sheet is done.

Tap any run of two or more touching marks of the same silhouette and the whole cluster lifts in one stroke. A clear scores 10 × group² × sheet, so a four-mark cluster on the first sheet is worth 160 — bigger clusters pay off sharply.

The marks

There is only one ink, drawn in eight silhouettes chosen never to read alike — strokes, hollows, solids and a compound eye. Only like matches like, so you're always hunting touching runs of a single shape. More silhouettes join the page as the sheets grow larger.

The eight marks. Later sheets widen the board from 8×8 up to 12×12 and bring more of these into play.

On the page

Mark — match two or more of the same silhouette to clear them. Bigger clusters cost the same single stroke but score far more.

Gilded mark — ringed in gold. Any clear that includes one scores ×3 (×9 with a gold nib). Free them and fold them into a big cluster.

Blot — a hazard that arrives with fresh ink and spreads every four strokes. Fill the ruin meter and the sheet is ruined, taking its unsealed points with it.

Keep the page clean

Every sheet ends one of two ways — you spend your last stroke, or you press the wax seal to stop early. The choice is where the game lives.

Seal, or press your luck

Spend every stroke on a clean page and you bank a clean-page bonus of up to +50%, scaled by how far the ruin meter sits from full. Press the wax seal to bank what you have right now — but you forfeit that bonus. Let the blots fill the meter first and the whole page is ruined, points and all.

The writing desk

Big erasures earn tools, dealt in a fixed rotation and carried between sheets. Clear 6–8 marks for a basic tool; clear 9 or more — or survive a whole sheet — for a premium one.

Pair+ · clear & score

6–8 marks · basic tool

9+ or a full sheet · premium tool

Basic tools keep the page tidy:

Solvent — erase any one mark, to split a stubborn cluster or reach a gilded mark.
Blotter — lift a single blot off the page.
Wash — rinse every blot inside a 3×3 area you tap.

Premium tools buy you room and points:

Quill — adds three strokes to the current sheet.
Gold nib — your next erasure scores ×3 (×9 stacked on a gilded mark).
Fixative — blots stop spreading for six strokes.

Tips

Hold out for a bigger cluster — the score climbs with the square of its size.
Deal with blots early, before a spread turns them into a ruined sheet.
Save Solvent for freeing a gilded mark stranded among the wrong silhouette.
Chase a 9-mark clear, or a full clean sheet, for the premium tools.

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