Cardinal Chains is a puzzle app developed by Daniel Nora.
Download Statistics
Cardinal Chains has been downloaded 8 thousand times. In the last 30 days, the app was downloaded 4 times.
User Ratings
Cardinal Chains is rated 4.93 out of 5 stars. The rating is based on 180 ratings.
App Information
Cardinal Chains costs $2.99 to download. The APK download size is 88.48 MB. The latest version available is 1.1.4. The last update was on October 4, 2025.
Technical Requirements
Cardinal Chains requires Android 4.1+ or higher. The app has a content rating of Everyone. The app has been available on Google Play March 2018.
Description
Cardinal Chains is a minimalist puzzle game centering on the concept of non-decreasing sequences.
Each puzzle begins with a monochrome grid of numbers, plus a few colored cells marked with an X. Starting at these cells, you must link up numbers in non-decreasing order until the whole grid is filled with color.
• 500 unique, carefully handcrafted puzzles of varying difficulty, each with a single solution • Beautiful, lengthy chill-out soundtrack created by accomplished professional artists • Minimalist, elegant design without timers, ads, purchases or other hassles - just pure gameplay • Several built-in color themes, including colorblind options. Or... • ...make your own color themes - right from within the game! • Features achievements and cloud saves
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I feel bad for ruining the perfect 5 but there's one glaring issue I
couldn't ignore. Some of the puzzles are great, but the problem is that a
lot are way too easy. Over 500 sounds great, but you will run into some
that solve themselves, thus completely ruining the difficulty curve. I'm
not talking about puzzles that are easy to me, I'm talking with as much
objectivity as possible. The challenging puzzles are those where the
logical path is hidden in red herrings. Where choice leads to choice that
leads to choice. The easy ones are those that lead from "must happen move"
to another until the board fills itself. [Minor spoiler] A" must happen
move" is noticing that only this color can get these 1s, or the only way to
get this 4 is by the singular 3 next to it. Stuff like that, not moves that
pop out to the player. Again, trying to be objective [End spoiler] These
can be viewed as bits of respite between the more challenging levels, but
simply being a phone game makes it prone to self-made respite by simply
doing something else. Considering more difficult puzzle games on pc do just
fine without relief puzzles, i think these unnecessary puzzles drags the
game down from perfection. Everything else is good, no complaints. Well,
lack of music makes the experience feel a bit empty, but since we're on
phones, that's easily remedied. Edit-upon further reflection, the game is
also a bit too easy in general, but I think it's fine for the price tag
Also the "bad design achievement" tips off the player that perhaps every
other puzzle has 1 solution. Therefore, if the solution you're testing
allows for two different outcomes (Like you can either have a 1112233/12 or
11122/1233 chain), then it's probably wrong and that means the player
should scrap it and start over. This form of meta gaming in unsatisfying.
★★★★★Edmund Szeto· Aug 9, 2022
I love games like this that have a simple concept, but levels can be challenging and requires logic to solve. Blew through first 40 levels in one sitting and loving the gradual increase in difficulty.
★★★★★Aaron Azen· May 8, 2018
High quality, mind-bending puzzle. Thanks for the recommendation Nerd Cubed.
Google Play Rankings for Cardinal Chains
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Technologies used by Cardinal Chains
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