Cold Start

A daily mosaic logic puzzle.

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Cold Start

Today's farm is on its way.

Today's farm

Time 0:00

Row 1, column 1Row 1, column 2Row 1, column 3Row 1, column 4Row 1, column 5Row 1, column 6Row 1, column 7Row 1, column 8Row 1, column 9Row 1, column 10Row 2, column 1Row 2, column 2Row 2, column 3Row 2, column 4Row 2, column 5Row 2, column 6Row 2, column 7Row 2, column 8Row 2, column 9Row 2, column 10Row 3, column 1Row 3, column 2Row 3, column 3Row 3, column 4Row 3, column 5Row 3, column 6Row 3, column 7Row 3, column 8Row 3, column 9Row 3, column 10Row 4, column 1Row 4, column 2Row 4, column 3Row 4, column 4Row 4, column 5Row 4, column 6Row 4, column 7Row 4, column 8Row 4, column 9Row 4, column 10Row 5, column 1Row 5, column 2Row 5, column 3Row 5, column 4Row 5, column 5Row 5, column 6Row 5, column 7Row 5, column 8Row 5, column 9Row 5, column 10Row 6, column 1Row 6, column 2Row 6, column 3Row 6, column 4Row 6, column 5Row 6, column 6Row 6, column 7Row 6, column 8Row 6, column 9Row 6, column 10Row 7, column 1Row 7, column 2Row 7, column 3Row 7, column 4Row 7, column 5Row 7, column 6Row 7, column 7Row 7, column 8Row 7, column 9Row 7, column 10Row 8, column 1Row 8, column 2Row 8, column 3Row 8, column 4Row 8, column 5Row 8, column 6Row 8, column 7Row 8, column 8Row 8, column 9Row 8, column 10Row 9, column 1Row 9, column 2Row 9, column 3Row 9, column 4Row 9, column 5Row 9, column 6Row 9, column 7Row 9, column 8Row 9, column 9Row 9, column 10Row 10, column 1Row 10, column 2Row 10, column 3Row 10, column 4Row 10, column 5Row 10, column 6Row 10, column 7Row 10, column 8Row 10, column 9Row 10, column 10

Online Offline Clear

Undo Clear all Hint

Check Give up

• Online: a lit cell
• × Offline: your note, stays dark
• 4 Number: Online cells in its 3×3
• 4 Red: over its count, or out of reach

Tap a cell to cycle open, Online, Offline; or pick a brush. Keys: arrows move, O Online, X Offline, Space cycles, Backspace clears, Enter checks, U undo.

Warm-up 6×6 Practice farm

Tap a cell to cycle it between open, Online and Offline.

Boot the farm to file your time.

Next boot at midnight UTC.

How everyone did today appears here once 20 players have finished.

0Played

0Booted

0Win %

0Streak

0Best streak

0No hint

Best times: none yet.

Archive: Today's farm

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Today's card shows the farm with its numbers only, your time band, streak and the days to launch; a card for an earlier day shows that day's silhouette lit. Never today's picture.

Every number counts how many cells of its 3×3 block are Online; light the right cells and the farm boots. 10×10 on weekdays, the 12×12 full rack at the weekend, a 6×6 warm-up, brushes, live rule checks, one hint, a streak, personal bests and a spoiler-free result to share. A fan puzzle on an imagined rack, never a status signal.

How to play

The farm is a grid of cells, and some cells carry a number. Mark cells Online so that every number has exactly that many Online cells in the 3×3 block centred on it, itself included. A cell on an edge has a block of six, a corner a block of four. Tap a cell to cycle it, or pick a brush; a number that is met turns green, one over its count or out of reach turns red, and the checks only ever look at the rules, never at the answer. Undo and Clear all are there when a corner goes wrong. Every board is checked when the site is built by a solver that applies the same deductions you do (clue saturation, neighbourhood counting, subset reasoning between overlapping numbers), then tries a cell both ways only when nothing follows, so each has exactly one answer and opens with at least one cell the rules force; the 6×6 warm-ups fall to the rules alone, with no guessing at all.

Tip one: a 9 lights its whole block, and a 0 darkens it. A 9 has every one of its nine cells Online; a 0 has none; a 6 on an edge or a 4 in a corner is the same full block in disguise. Tip two: once a number is met, the rest of its block is dark. A 3 with three Online cells already in its block sends every other cell of that block Offline, and a number whose open cells are exactly the ones it still needs lights all of them. Then let neighbours do the work: two numbers side by side share six cells, so the difference between them lives in the three cells each has alone, and when that difference is three, those three are all Online on one side and all dark on the other.

Everyone gets the same farm on the same UTC day: 10×10 on weekdays, the 12×12 full rack at the weekend, and newcomers can switch on the 6×6 warm-up, which still counts. One hint a day marks one cell the rules force, says which rule, and marks the result as assisted. When the last number is met the racks light up in order and the ops lead signs off with your time; Give up shows the silhouette and ends the day without a boot. The archive lets you play any earlier day's farm and practice farms come from a spare pool; both are marked and never count. Cold Start is a fan puzzle about an imagined launch-night rack: nothing here is a server, a status figure or an asset from GTA 6, the silhouettes are abstract shapes and never a logo, nothing comes from a leak, and nothing is presented as official. For more deduction try the Load Order, the Failover and the Fault Finder.

Questions

What are the rules?

The farm is a grid of cells, and some cells carry a number. The number says how many cells of the 3×3 block centred on it, itself included, are Online in the finished farm; a cell on an edge or in a corner has a smaller block. Mark cells Online so that every number is met exactly. Offline marks are for you, a note that a cell stays dark; the farm counts as booted when every number is met. Every board here has exactly one answer.

How do I mark a cell?

Tap a cell to cycle it: open, Online, Offline, open. Or pick a brush (Online, Offline or Clear) and every tap paints that; tap the brush again to go back to cycling. On a keyboard the arrows move the cursor, O or 1 marks Online, X or 0 marks Offline, Space cycles, Backspace or Delete clears, Enter checks the numbers, U undoes. Undo takes back the last change and Clear all empties the farm. No soft keyboard ever opens.

What do the highlights mean?

A number turns green once its block holds exactly that many Online cells; it turns red when its block already holds too many Online cells, or when the open cells left could never reach its count. The checks only ever look at the rules, never at the answer. One hint a day marks one cell the named rules force, says which rule, and marks the result as assisted. Give up shows the silhouette and ends the day without a boot.

What is the warm-up?

A 6×6 farm for newcomers, switched on with the Warm-up toggle (remembered on this device). Every warm-up falls to the named rules alone, with no guessing. It counts as the day's solve; the 10×10 weekday and 12×12 weekend farms are what the best times are about.

Is this a real status signal?

No. Cold Start is a fan logic puzzle about an imagined launch-night server farm. Nothing here is a server, a load figure or an asset from the game or its services, the silhouettes are abstract rack shapes and never a logo, nothing comes from a leak, and nothing is presented as official. For the real launch-day status picture, see the status page and the readiness guides on this site.

Shard Split

Cold start done? Now split the cluster

A daily classic Fillomino: a 7×7 floor on weekdays, the harder Maintenance window 9×9 at the weekend, a 5×5 warm-up. A number pad, drag to paint, corner pencil marks, live shard borders and rule checks, one named-rule hint, a streak, personal bests and a spoiler-free result to share. A fan puzzle, never real status.

Split today's floor

Load Balancer

Farm booted? Now balance the load

A daily KenKen-style arithmetic logic puzzle: 6×6 on weekdays, the 7×7 full rack at the weekend, a 4×4 warm-up. A number pad, pencil marks, live rule checks, one hint, a streak, personal bests and a spoiler-free result to share. A fan puzzle, never a status signal.

Balance today's rack

Coolant

Farm booted? Now prime the loop

A daily thermometers logic puzzle: 10×10 on weekdays, the 12×12 full loop at the weekend, a 6×6 warm-up. Brushes, drag-paint, live rule checks, one hint, a streak, personal bests and a spoiler-free result to share. A fan puzzle, never a status signal.

Prime today's loop

Keep exploring

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