Number Match grew out of the pencil game Take Ten, also known as Numberama. You work through a grid of digits, nine per row, crossing out two equal numbers or any straight run of numbers that adds up to 10. When nothing is left to cross out, Add copies the surviving digits onto the end, four times per sheet, and Hint tells you whether a full clear is still possible. Once a sheet is dealt nothing is random, which puts it closer to Sudoku than to 2048, where a new tile appears after every move.
Tap two digits to cross them out if they are the same number or if the straight line between them adds up to exactly 10. Emptying the sheet takes you to the next stage, and you are out of moves once nothing matches and that stage's four adds are spent.
Every stage starts with 35 digits from 1 to 9, laid out as three full rows and a fourth with eight. Lines run across, down or along either diagonal. Crossed-out cells don't block anything, so 3 · · 7 pairs just like 3 7, but every live digit in between counts toward the total. That lets 4 4 2 or 5 3 1 1 go in one move, while the two 7s in 7 2 7 cannot pair.
A row whose digits are all gone is removed, and the rows below slide up into new columns and diagonals. Add repeats every remaining digit, left to right and top to bottom, after the final cell, so 1 2 3 · 5 becomes 1 2 3 · 5 1 2 3 5. You can add whenever you like, and each cleared sheet brings 35 fresh digits and four new adds.
No. Lines stop at the edge of the grid, so the digit at the far right of one row and the one at the far left of the row below are not neighbors. Many Number Match apps, and the paper game, read the sheet as one continuous line, so this is the rule most likely to catch you out.
Instead, the first live digits of two neighboring rows are linked no matter which columns they occupy, and the last live digits are linked too. Two equal heads pair on their own, and a line may bend at the heads into an L. If a row's first three cells are crossed out and its head is a 6 while the next row starts 1 3, then 6, 1 and 3 make 10 and go together. The nine-step tutorial on your first visit walks through pairs, runs, this row link and Add, and Tutorial in the sidebar replays it.
| You score | Points |
|---|---|
| Every cell a line passes over, crossed-out ones too | 1 |
| Each row removed | 10 |
| Each sheet cleared | 150 |
Neighbors such as 3 7 earn 2, and 3 · · 7 over two crossed-out cells earns 4. An L counts cells along both rows out to the edge, so the 6, 1, 3 example scores 4 + 2 = 6. Taking the last two digits of a sheet collects all three at once, 2 + 10 + 150 = 162.
The sums to remember are 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, and 5 and 5, while runs such as 2 3 5 or 1 1 8 remove three digits in one move and open space faster.
In a crowded row, cross out the middle first, since each gap lets the digits on both sides reach each other along the row, the column and both diagonals. Give priority to moves that empty a row, for the 10 points and for the new heads, tails and alignments it creates.
Before adding, picture the copy. The first copied digit lands right after the last cell, so if the last row is short and ends in a 3 while the first remaining digit is a 7, the add itself creates a pair. Adding out of habit is wasteful, since four adds go quickly and a longer sheet is harder to read.
No. Some random sheets cannot be cleared within four adds, and a playable sheet can be steered into a dead end. Press Hint and it highlights a match, then either confirms you are on track for a full clear (sometimes telling you to add first) or warns that no full clear remains, which is the signal to bank the points that are left.
Undo steps back up to 200 moves, adds included, so you can try an add, see how the copy lines up and take it back. Restart brings back the same digits from stage 1 to replay a sheet that got away. From the keyboard, arrows move between cells, Enter picks one, and Z, H and A are undo, hint and add.