How to play Bearing
A daily direction-finding puzzle, new every day. Two or three sound sources sit somewhere around a 16-point compass. Rotate to face any heading, then listen: each source pulls left or right the way a real ear would hear it, and the game tells you exactly what that pull means, in words, next to the dial. One listen alone is ambiguous — the same pull matches a source ahead of your heading or its mirror behind it — so listen again from a different heading to triangulate the truth. Mark every source's true bearing on the dial and check. Each listen costs a point, so find them in as few as the par, then share your result. Missed a day? Every earlier day stays playable.
The rules
- The game opens on today's Two-source puzzle. The tab above it, or the 1 and 2 keys, switches to Three sources.
- Rotate your heading with the ‹ › buttons or the Left/Right arrow keys (also A/D).
- Press Listen (or Space) to hear every source once, in order, from your current heading. Headphones or stereo speakers work best — a quick sound check runs the first time.
- Each source pulls left or right like a real ear would hear it; the same pull always matches two possible bearings, mirrored across your heading, until a second listen from a different heading narrows it to one. The exact pair is also printed next to the dial.
- Tap or click a compass point to mark it as a source's bearing; tap again to unmark. Marks cost nothing.
- Press Check (or K) once you have marked one bearing per source. A wrong guess costs 2.
- Every listen costs 1. Spend no more than the par, which is what a careful two-heading triangulation needs, for a star.
- Press Share (or C) to copy a spoiler-free result, and come back after midnight for the next puzzle.
- Missed a day? The arrows beside the day on the title screen (or the comma and period keys) open every earlier day. Those do not count toward your streak.
A worked example
Face heading N and listen. A source pulls right, moderately: that pull alone cannot tell you whether the source sits at NE (two points clockwise, ahead of you) or at SE (six points clockwise, behind you) — both sit on your right at the same interaural angle, the classic front-back "cone of confusion" a single listen can never resolve on its own.
Rotate to face E (four points clockwise) and listen again. If the source is really at NE, it is now slightly behind your left shoulder, so it pulls left. If it were really at SE, it would now be slightly ahead on your right, so it would still pull right. You hear a left pull — so NE is confirmed and SE is ruled out.
Mark NE on the dial for that source and repeat the same pair of listens — face a heading, listen, rotate to a clearly different heading, listen again — for every other source before pressing Check.
One tip for the par
Take your two listens from headings a good distance apart (roughly a quarter turn, not a couple of points): a small rotation barely moves a distant candidate’s relative angle, while a wide one moves it a lot, so the pull is far less likely to sound the same by mistake.