Unfold
A sheet is folded twice and punched. Work out where the holes land when it opens.
Unfold is a daily spatial puzzle built on one of the oldest reasoning-test formats there is. A square sheet of paper is folded once vertically and once horizontally, leaving a quarter-size stack four layers thick. A hole punch goes through the stack at two to four places. Then the paper is opened out.
Your job is to mark where the holes are.
How to play
- Read the fold steps listed under the grids.
- Look at the folded sheet on the left — the coral squares are the punches.
- On the answer grid, click every square that will have a hole once the sheet is opened.
- Press Check. You get three attempts; after a wrong one you are told how many squares are off, but not which.
The one rule that solves it
Every punch reflects across each fold line. With two folds that means one punch becomes four holes, placed symmetrically about the centre of the sheet.
So the reliable method is mechanical rather than intuitive: take one punch, mirror it left-to-right, then mirror both of those top-to-bottom. That is four squares. Repeat for the next punch. Players who try to visualise the whole opened sheet at once are far more likely to lose a reflection somewhere.
A useful check before you commit: the finished pattern must be symmetric along both centre lines. If your marked grid is lopsided in either direction, something is missing — and spotting that costs nothing, while a failed check costs an attempt.
Why this one travels
Unfold contains no words. Beyond the four lines of instructions there is nothing to translate, nothing to read quickly and nothing that favours native English speakers. It is the puzzle on this site that plays identically anywhere in the world.
Stuck? The answer and hints page reveals the pattern one layer at a time.
Tips
- Work one punch at a time. A single punch always opens into exactly four holes, and four holes are easy to place. Doing all of them at once is what causes mistakes.
- Mirror across the vertical centre line first, then mirror the whole result across the horizontal centre line. Doing both at once in your head is where most errors creep in.
- Every finished pattern is symmetric both left-to-right and top-to-bottom. If yours is not, you have missed a reflection — check before spending a life on it.
- Count before you check. Punches times four is the number of holes you should have marked, unless two punches happen to mirror onto the same square.
Questions
How many holes does one punch make?
Four. Two folds mean four layers of paper, and because the sheet is six squares across there is no centre row or column for a punch to land on, so the four are always distinct.
Does it matter which half was folded over?
It changes what you are looking at but not the answer. Reflection about the centre line is symmetric, so the final pattern depends only on where the punches sit relative to the fold lines.
How many attempts do I get?
Three checks. After a failed check you are told how many squares are still wrong, but not which ones.
Do I need to read English to play?
No. Apart from the instructions, Unfold is entirely visual, which makes it the easiest game here to play in any language.
Is the puzzle the same for everyone?
Yes. The fold directions and punch positions come from the date, so everyone plays the same sheet each day. It resets at midnight UTC.