Streaks, freezes, and the badges Plain has named

A streak is the count of consecutive New York days you finish. I am not going to invent a badge checklist. The how-to-play page names two badges, says a few are secret, and describes XP in one paragraph. Everything else on this page is that paragraph, plus the FAQ lines about freezes and reminders. If a rule is missing, it is missing on purpose.

Freezes

• Every 7 days of streak, you earn 1 streak freeze.
• You can hold 2.
• If you miss a day and you have a freeze, it is spent and the streak stays.
• If you miss a day with none left, the streak starts over next time. The best streak you have ever had is kept.
• The game only warns that a streak is at risk in the last 3 hours, and only if you have no freeze.

XP and the daily task

Each finished game grants XP from four places: altitude, streak, each Dialed, and the daily task. XP fills a level. The page does not publish the curve, the cap, or the size of each grant. There is one daily task, the same for everyone. The example they give is “Land 3 answers Close or better.” I do not have a second example, so I will not make one up.

The two named badges

8,849 metres is also the Everest mark on the altitude ruler. Because 1 point equals 10 metres, 8,849 m is 884.9 points of altitude after the time sink. A perfect 1,000 clears it. A strong game that bled time on every round might not. I have not seen the badge fire myself. The condition is the published one.

Reminders

Reminders are browser notifications. You can pick morning, lunch, commute, or evening. They send at most one reminder on a day you have not played. The last three hours can add a streak-at-risk note. Nothing is sent between 22:00 and 08:00. That schedule is from the FAQ, checked 2026-10-25.

• Rules for a single day
• What Close and Dialed mean
• Play today's puzzle before the freeze matters

• Plain — How to play
• Plain — FAQ