SURGE — chain numbers that never fall

What is SURGE — chain numbers that never fall

SURGE hands you a six by six grid of numbers from one to six and twenty moves. You draw a path through touching cells — up, down, left, right, never diagonally — and the only condition is that the path never falls: each step must be worth as much as the one before it, or more. What makes that possible is charge. The moment you take a cell, every cell touching it gains +1 for the rest of that chain, and the board shows you those charged values live while you drag. The cell ahead of you is lifted just before you step on it.

The score is the sum of the chain multiplied by its length, and that multiplication decides everything: two chains of five cells pay far less than one chain of ten. So collecting early is almost never the right move. A chain of seven or more refunds the move you spent, but only six times in a run, which pins the maximum at twenty-six collections. Cells you take vanish, the survivors fall down their column, and fresh numbers from one to six drop in on top. The run ends when the moves run out.

How to play

1. Drag a finger or the mouse through touching cells to draw the chain; the bar under the board shows the sum, the length and the points so far.
2. The number on each step must be equal to or greater than the one before it, counting the charge your own path has just pushed into it.
3. Taking a cell adds +1 to every cell touching it for the rest of the chain; a cell touching two cells of your path gains +2.
4. Let go to collect and you score sum × length. Seven cells or more refund the move, up to six times a run; drag back to undo a step.

Strategies that work

• The first number of a chain is the floor for everything that follows, so open on the lowest cell you can find. Starting on a six forces the next cell to reach six, and only a charged five or another six manages it. Ones and twos are about forty-four per cent of the board.
• A straight line only gives +1 per step, because each new cell touches nothing but the previous one. Run down one column and back up the next: the cells at the turn touch two cells of your path and gain +2. That S pattern — plus one, plus one, plus two — carries you over the high numbers.
• Multiplication punishes early collection. Two cells holding a one and a two are worth three times two, six points, and cost a whole move. Seven cells averaging four are worth one hundred and ninety-six. Twelve cells averaging six are worth eight hundred and sixty-four. Length enters the sum twice.
• Refunded moves stop at six. Until then every chain of seven or more pays for itself and costs you nothing. Once the sixth refund lands, length buys points only, and it starts to pay to gamble on one enormous chain even if it takes a while to set up.
• A board at rest never holds a number above six: the sevens, the eights and the white-hot nine are your own charge and vanish when you clear the chain. Watch the height you eat at — a chain near the top barely disturbs the rest, a chain along the bottom drops everything and brings in random numbers.

A little history

SURGE was written from scratch for Puzzle-Me. It belongs to the family of path-drawing puzzles played on a grid of numbers, but its central rule is neither adding up to a target nor merging equal pieces: it is a monotone sequence, a chain that may only rise or stay level. The idea came from a well-known programming exercise, the longest path of increasing values inside a matrix. On its own that rule gives runs of three or four cells, because a long path needs a staircase of numbers that rarely exists. The +1 charge on the neighbours is what makes it playable.

Frequently asked questions