Tap Tap strategy

Follow: delay is allowed, getting ahead is not

The computer doesn't wait: a color arrives at each interval, from 2 s at the start down to 0.5 s. You are allowed to fall 6 colors behind, but you can't tap ahead: touching a tile when no color is waiting for you ends the game. So it's better to tap a little after a color appears than to guess the next one.

Falling behind even has a small advantage: a tap counts the colors already shown. In the same game, replayed by the app's engine, the first 12 colors tapped as soon as they appear earn 192 points; tapped with a delay of two colors, the same 12 taps earn 252. This gain stays small, and each waiting color brings you closer to the limit of 7.

Memorize: remember tiles, in small groups

The tiles are numbered and don't move as long as the grid keeps its size. Remembering “three, one, four” is often easier than names of similar colors. Splitting the sequence into groups of two or three also helps: short-term memory holds small chunks better (see memory span). Since the sequence is drawn from scratch each round, there's no need to keep the previous one in mind.

Take your time: nothing is rushed during your turn. Each of the computer's colors stays lit for 1.2 s, then only 0.8 s once the sequence reaches 5 colors: that's when reading it takes the most attention.

Grid changes

Each time the grid grows, all the colors change places. In Follow mode, the sequence starts over from zero after a 2 s pause: use it to read the grid again, as the gap between colors goes back to 2 s. In Memorize mode, the new grid arrives with the next round.

Lasting longer pays more than anything

In Memorize mode, a round's points grow with its number and with the grid. In the replayed game on the Examples page, the first round earns 100 points and the first 5 together earn 1,475, while round 22, on the 4 × 4 grid (16 tiles), earns 19,800 on its own.