How Hard Mode Works
Hard Mode keeps the one rule of Click the Pair and turns up everything else. Each board has 20 tiles instead of 12, and from the very first grid many of them come from the same family, such as a cluster of fruits, animals or sports gear. Exactly two tiles match. Find them, click both, and a new board appears straight away.
You still have 60 seconds, and a wrong click still costs 2 seconds. As your score climbs, more and more of the board is filled from a single group, so the last few pairs of a strong round are the hardest of all. Your Hard Mode best score is saved separately from the classic game, so a lower number here does not spoil your record there.
Tips for Hard Mode
- Split the board. Scan the top half, then the bottom half, instead of trying to take in all 20 tiles at once.
- Find the biggest family. When most of the tiles are fruits, the pair is very likely a fruit too. Compare the members of the largest group first.
- Read the outline, not the color. Look-alike emojis often share colors but not shapes. A glance at the silhouette tells a lemon from a banana faster than color does.
- Don’t panic-click. With more tiles on the board, a guess is more likely to be wrong, and losing 2 seconds hurts more when every board takes longer to read.
Hard Mode FAQ
What is a good Hard Mode score?
Hard boards take longer to read, so scores run lower than in the classic game. Anything in double figures is a strong round. Your best score for this mode is shown at the top of the board.
Does Hard Mode work on a phone?
Yes. The board shows four tiles across and five down, and every tile stays large enough to tap comfortably, even on small phones.
Is there a daily Hard Mode?
Not yet. The daily challenge uses the classic 12-tile board so that everyone plays exactly the same game. Hard Mode is free play, with new boards every round.