How the Daily stays fair
The Daily is one board a day, the same for every player in the world, and one try. For a leaderboard like that to mean anything, it has to be fair: nobody should be able to see tomorrow's board early, replay today's until they get lucky, or simply send in a made-up score. This post explains how Hex handles that.
The same board for everyone
Every Hex board is generated from a number called a seed. The same seed always produces exactly the same board, down to every tile. For the Daily, the seed comes from our server, not from the date on your device, so changing your phone's clock doesn't unlock a different or future board, and the server won't hand out boards days ahead.
One try
The Daily is one attempt per day. Read the whole board before your first move: once you finish, that result is your score for the day.
Scores are checked, not trusted
A score sent from a phone could say anything. So instead of trusting the number, the game sends the moves you made, and the server replays them on the same board. If the moves solve the board, the server works out the score itself; if they don't, the score is refused. The same goes for Endless runs and for the stars and coins you earn in the Journey: a win only counts once the moves behind it check out.
The rotation
The Daily rotates through the games: Monday Swap, Tuesday Bloom, Wednesday Memory, Thursday Spot, Friday Drift, Saturday Swap and Sunday a surprise. One streak covers all of them, so a good Bloom day keeps your Swap streak alive. When you finish, you can share a result card that shows your score and opens the same board for whoever taps it.
Why we bother
Hex is a small game made by a small team. A leaderboard that cheaters can top in a minute is worse than no leaderboard at all, and the whole point of the Daily is comparing notes with friends on the exact same puzzle. Checking every score by replaying it is a little more work for our server, and worth it.