Daily word grid

How to play the Archivist's Grid

Sixteen records sit on the Archivist's sorting tray, each with a word on it. They hide four groups of four, and each group shares a link. Pick four words you think belong together and drop them in the open drawer. When the fourth card lands the drawer slides shut by itself and judges them. A right four is stamped FILED, and its paper label types out the link so you can see why they belong. A wrong four jams, rattles and spits the cards back across the desk, and one of your four brass pips goes out.

• You can afford four misfiles. The fourth closes the archive for the day.
• Try the same wrong four again and nothing is counted. The drawer just stops.
• Three of four right earns the line "Three of these share a drawer".
• The four groups run from plain to sly, and there is exactly one fair way to sort all sixteen.

Tips for word grouping puzzles

• Look for the word that fits two groups. Red herrings are deliberate here. The trick is to count: a word belongs where its group has no other fourth member.
• Start with the most specific link you can see, not the biggest. A tight group of four is rarely a trap.
• Say the words aloud. Several links are about sound, spelling or hidden words, not meaning.
• Use Mix when you are stuck. It shuffles the cards on the tray for free, and a new layout shows you new pairs.
• Never file on a hunch while you still have a safe group to take. Every group you file shrinks the problem.

Hints, and what Not today means

The Locksmith gives three hints, free and one at a time, and they never cost a misfile or your streak. After the third you can ask him to show you a drawer. That drawer files with a dotted label, the day ends as Not today when you finish, and it still counts toward your streak. The answer for a shown drawer appears on the finish face, never on the share card.

What makes our word grid different

The grid is our own game in a place you can almost smell: a walnut desk in a records room with a card catalogue, a brass lamp throwing a spotlight, dust floating in the light and an amber terminal showing a lit square for every card still out. Cards lift, tilt and flutter as you move them, the stamp thumps, the label types key by key, and the solve ends with a drawer springing open on the Locksmith's key. Words are everyday English only, picked so they mean the same in Australia and the US, and every puzzle is checked by a solver before it can go live.

A new file at your midnight

Every player gets the grid for their own local date. The streak counts any finished day, and one spare key covers a single missed day. The share card shows how each group went, plain to sly, and never a word or a label.