Frequently Asked Questions

What is Beatdle?

Beatdle is a free daily music puzzle inspired by Wordle. Instead of guessing a word, you listen to a drum beat and try to recreate it on a sequencer grid. The grid has three rows — one for kick drum, one for snare, and one for hi-hat — each with sixteen time steps representing one bar of music. You get color-coded feedback after each guess to help you zero in on the correct pattern.

How many attempts do I get?

You have six attempts to match the target beat. After each guess, you receive feedback showing which hits are correct (green), which are the right instrument but in the wrong position (yellow), and which are not present at all (gray). If you match the beat perfectly within six guesses, you win. If not, the correct beat is revealed so you can hear the solution.

What do the colors mean?

• Green — The hit is in the correct position for this instrument. It will be locked into your next guess automatically.
• Yellow — The target beat has a hit for this instrument, but not at this step. Try moving it to a different column.
• Gray — There is no unaccounted-for hit at this position. Either the instrument has no hit here, or all of its hits have already been matched by green and yellow cells elsewhere.
• Blue — An active cell in your current (unsubmitted) guess, indicating where you have placed a hit.
• Muted green — A locked cell carried over from a previous correct guess. These cannot be toggled off.

Can I play past beats or replay an older puzzle?

No. Beatdle generates one new beat per day, and past beats are not available once the day has ended. This keeps the experience fresh and ensures that all players are working on the same puzzle at the same time. When the clock rolls past midnight in your local time zone, a new beat replaces the previous one.

How is the daily beat generated?

The beat is generated using a seeded pseudorandom number generator (Mulberry32 PRNG). The seed is derived from the current date, so the same date always produces the same beat for every player in the world. No server is involved — the beat is calculated entirely in your browser. The generation uses weighted probabilities to ensure musical plausibility: kicks favor downbeats, snares favor backbeats, and hi-hats favor regular subdivisions.

Why can I only listen to the target beat once per guess?

The one-listen-per-guess rule is a core part of the challenge. Beatdle is designed to test your musical memory, not just your ability to compare sounds side by side in real time. When you press play, the beat loops continuously so you can listen as many times as you need during that session. But once you stop playback, you must submit your guess before you can listen again. This encourages you to listen carefully and deliberately before editing your grid.

What instruments are used?

Beatdle uses three percussion instruments, all synthesized in real time using the Web Audio API — no audio sample files are loaded:

• Kick drum — A triangle oscillator with a frequency sweep from 120 Hz downward, producing a deep bass thump with a half-second decay.
• Snare drum — A combination of highpass-filtered white noise and a short triangle oscillator burst, creating a sharp, cracking sound.
• Hi-hat — White noise filtered through a 7 kHz highpass filter with a very short 80 millisecond decay, producing a bright, metallic tick.

Is my progress saved?

Yes. Your current game state and historical statistics (games played, win rate, guess distribution, and current streak) are saved in your browser's localStorage. This means your progress persists across page refreshes and browser restarts, but it is tied to your specific browser and device. Clearing your browser data will reset your statistics. No account or login is required.

How do I share my results?

After completing a game (win or lose), a results modal appears with a share button. Pressing it copies an emoji grid to your clipboard, showing your guess history as colored squares without revealing the actual beat. You can paste this into messages, social media posts, or anywhere else to compare results with friends. The format is similar to Wordle's share feature.

Is Beatdle free to play?

Yes, Beatdle is completely free. There are no premium features, subscriptions, or in-app purchases. The game is supported by non-intrusive advertisements displayed around the game area. Your gameplay experience is never interrupted by ads.

What browsers are supported?

Beatdle works in all modern browsers that support the Web Audio API, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge on both desktop and mobile devices. For the best experience, use an up-to-date version of your preferred browser. Older browsers that do not support the Web Audio API or modern JavaScript features may not run the game correctly.

Why does the page reload at midnight?

Beatdle periodically checks whether a new daily beat is available. When the date changes (typically at midnight in your local time zone), the page reloads automatically to present the new puzzle. This also happens if you leave a tab open overnight or switch back to a Beatdle tab after the date has changed. The reload ensures you are always playing the current day's beat.

Can I cheat by inspecting the page source?

The target beat is not stored anywhere in localStorage or in the page's HTML. It is recalculated from the current date each time the game loads. While a determined user could reverse-engineer the generation algorithm, the game is designed to make casual cheating impractical. The global note limit also prevents brute-force strategies like selecting every cell.