I was playing this morning with my kids and we came across one of the puzzles. We were making attempts and it was giving us the success and clue symbols to help keep us on the right track. But I am curious, when it gives us say 1 success and 1 clue does that mean we ONLY have one right in one spot and only one other is correct in the wrong spot? Or is there possibly more but it only wants to tell us about two? I noticed sometimes it would give me 3 sometimes 2, but I found the hint system to be very confusing overall. Can anyone shed some light on it who has experienced it more than me and figured it out? Thanks.

Sure.

The simplest way to explain it is this:

First, look at the number of "dice" that show up on the right side after you make a guess. That is the total number of symbols you have guessed that are actually in the final solution.

The number of "stars" is the number of symbols you've chosen correctly and are in the right spot.

The number of "magnifying glasses" is the number of symbols you've chosen correctly, but are not in the right spot.

So, for instance... if, for a five-slot puzzle, you chose Red-White-Green-Blue-Grey, and you got 1 star and 1 magnifying glass, you'd know:

1) the final solution of the puzzle would be made up of only two different colors, as you only have two "total" symbols.

2) one of the five symbols you chose was the correct color and in the right spot.

3) one of the the other symbols you chose was correct, but not in the right spot.

If you want to practice, these puzzle are actually just a game called "Mastermind". There are tons of versions available to play free online, and it's a good way to get good at that kind of puzzle without risk of going (figuratively) insane.

Yup, it's Mastermind. I think it's possibly the lamest type of puzzle because you can easily break it with a standard algorythm. So, instead of thinking about it, you can simply use the very same scheme and break it every time in less than 10 moves (or so). Clearly, it's metagaming, but I enjoy more the other types of puzzles

Yea I eventually figured out how to just use a system to figure out whats where. But I think if you've never come up against these puzzles and had to figure out the system then that itself is an accomplishment. However, as you said now that I know the system it will be a lot less challenging in the future.

Thanks for the replies!