A Sherlock-style logic game you can play online, free

If you grew up on Sherlock, the game of logic by Everett Kaser, Hence will feel familiar: a grid of pictures, clues that say what goes next to what, and a board you clear by pure deduction. It's a new puzzle every day, free in your browser.

Just to be clear: Hence is its own game, made independently. It is not Sherlock, not a version of it, and not connected to Everett Kaser or Kaser Software.

What Sherlock fans will recognize

The appeal of Sherlock was never the theme. It was the feeling of a board giving way one certain step at a time. Hence is built around the same three moves:

• Exclusions. Most of the work is ruling things out. A clue says the yeti isn't next to the robot, so you take the yeti out of two squares, and that small change lets another clue land.
• Placements. When a square has only one picture left, or a picture has only one square left, it goes in. Every placement shrinks the rest of the board.
• Pure deduction. Every puzzle has exactly one solution, and you can always reach it by logic. You never have to guess and hope.

The clues read the way you'd expect. Pictures stacked on top of each other share a column. Pictures side by side are about position: next to each other, one somewhere left of another, or one between two others. A red ✕ turns a clue into its opposite.

How Hence is different

It's daily. Each day there's one quick 4x4 and one bigger 6x6, and everyone in the world gets the same two. Monday's are the gentlest and they build through the week, so a Sunday 6x6 is a proper workout.

You can challenge your friends. When you finish, send your time with one tap. Your friend opens the link, gets the very same board, and races to beat your time. When they finish, they can send theirs right back.

It's built for sharing. On a phone, Share opens your phone's own share sheet, so your result goes straight to a group chat, a message or any app you like. Post to your story makes a picture of your solve, with your time, your character and the medal you earned, sized for Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat stories. The challenge link is already copied, so add a link sticker and your friends can tap through and try to beat you.

The clues are its own. The idea of picture clues is shared, but the drawing is new: color-coded tiles so you can tell at a glance which row a clue is about, and a cast of monsters, hats, sweets, vehicles, instruments and weather to sort.

It's made for a phone. Hence runs in the browser on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook, with nothing to download or install. Tap a square to see what it can still hold, tap a picture to rule it out, tap the ✓ to place it. On a computer it works just as well with a mouse.

There's help if you want it. A hint shows you a next step that logic allows, and an optional setting catches mistakes as you go. Leave both alone for the full challenge.

Looking for Sherlock on iPhone or Mac?

If you want the original Sherlock, look for Everett Kaser Software, its maker. If what you really want is that kind of puzzle on the phone in your pocket or the Mac on your desk today, Hence plays in any modern browser. Open hencegame.com in Safari or Chrome and today's board is one tap away. You can even add it to your home screen so it opens like an app.

Where to start

New to this kind of puzzle, or rusty? The first time you play, a short tutorial walks you through a whole board. The how to play guide explains every clue, and how to solve logic puzzles shows six techniques on real boards.