Delve is a free daily card puzzle about surviving a dungeon. Each room shows four cards. You take three, and the room refills. Clear the whole deck before your health hits zero and you win.
Delve is based on Scoundrel by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg. If you know Scoundrel, you already know most of the rules. Delve deals a new deck every day, the same one for everyone.
How do you play Delve?
- Each room shows four cards. Tap three of them. After the third, the room refills from the deck.
- Tap a monster (black) to fight it. You lose health equal to its number.
- Tap a weapon (blue) to equip it. Its number is taken off the damage of every monster you fight with it.
- Tap a potion (red) to heal, up to your full health. Only the first potion you take in a room works. A second one is wasted.
- Clear every card in the deck to win. If your health reaches zero, you lose and can try again.
How do weapons wear down?
This is the rule that makes Delve a puzzle. A weapon can only fight monsters equal to or lower than the last monster it killed.
Say you equip a 9. You fight a 6, and take no damage, because 9 covers all of it. Your weapon now only works on monsters of 6 or lower. Then a 10 shows up. Your weapon can't touch it, so you take the full 10.
Now play it the other way. You fight the 10 first and take 1 damage (10 minus 9). Your weapon now works on anything up to 10, so the 6 costs you nothing. Same cards, same weapon, 9 less damage. The order you take cards in is the whole game.
You can also fight bare-handed. Tap your equipped weapon to switch it off. You take the monster's full damage, but the weapon keeps its current limit. It's worth it when a small hit now saves a big weapon for later.
How does Delve change through the week?
The dungeon gets longer and your starting health drops as the week goes on:
| Day | Starting health | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 30 | 28 |
| Tuesday | 28 | 32 |
| Wednesday | 26 | 36 |
| Thursday | 24 | 40 |
| Friday | 24 | 44 |
| Saturday | 22 | 44 |
| Sunday | 20 | 44 |
The pack and skipping rooms
The pack holds one weapon or potion for later. Tap the pack, then the card. Storing a card counts as one of your three picks for that room. Tap the pack again when you want to use it.
Skip room sends all four cards to the bottom of the deck. You can only skip before you've picked anything in that room, and never two rooms in a row.
Can every Delve deck be won?
Yes. Every day's deck is checked by a solver before it goes out, so there's always a way through. A loss means you took a wrong turn, not that the deck was against you.
That makes retrying worthwhile. You can undo a move, start the dungeon over, and try as many times as you like. When you finish, you can watch a winning line play out.
Tips for clearing the dungeon
- The designer's tip: go bare-handed on low monsters. A 2 or 3 costs you a little health. Hitting it with your weapon costs you every monster above 3 for the rest of that weapon's life. Keep the weapon's reach for the big ones.
- Fight big monsters first with a fresh weapon. Then work your way down. Going the other way wears the weapon out early.
- Don't take two potions in one room. The second does nothing. Put it in the pack instead.
- Keep a potion in the pack for a room with nothing to heal you.
- Save Skip room for a room with two big monsters and no weapon to take them on.
How is Delve scored?
Your time to clear the dungeon is your score, and your number of tries breaks ties on the leaderboard. Signed-in players get a daily leaderboard and a friends-only board. A win extends your streak. A loss still counts as playing the day, but it doesn't extend the streak.
How do you share your result?
The Share button copies a check or a cross, your time, your number of tries, and a row of ten squares. The red squares show how much health you had left. It gives away nothing about the deck. On a phone it opens your share sheet.
Delve #21 / ✅ 2:14 / 2 tries 🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥⬜⬜⬜ perdiem.games/delve
Common questions
Do I need to know Scoundrel?
No. The first time you play, a short animated how-to walks you through the rules and your first move.
Can I play yesterday's dungeon?
Yes. Past days open from the week strip on your results screen.
Is Delve free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with nothing to install, and you don't need an account.