Play Daily Grid Offline

I built Daily Grid partly because I got tired of daily puzzle apps that stop working the moment you lose signal, whether that's a subway platform, airplane mode, or hotel Wi-Fi that only half connects. As long as you've opened the hub once while online, you can go fully offline later and still play today's twelve puzzles.

If you haven't installed the hub yet, my PWA install guide covers that part. This post is about what happens after, once you're actually offline.

The short version

• Yes, you can play today's dailies offline, as long as the hub has loaded once online first.
• No, you don't need to download a week of puzzles ahead of time.
• Live leaderboards still need a connection.
• Scores, streaks, Grid Coins, and any new achievement unlocks catch up automatically once you reconnect, even if that's the next day.

Why I didn't build a "download tomorrow's puzzles" feature

A lot of daily games pull a puzzle file from a server every morning, and if that request fails, you're stuck with nothing to play. I wanted to avoid that failure mode entirely, so Daily Grid generates every board right on your device using the Pacific Time date as the seed. There's no puzzle file to fetch in the first place.

That means the only thing worth caching in advance is the app itself: the shell, the game code, the logos. Once that's stored, your device can build any given day's boards on its own the moment the calendar rolls over in Pacific Time. So the real setup step isn't stocking up on content ahead of time. It's just opening the hub once while you have signal, so the service worker gets a chance to save everything it needs.

What actually works with no signal

• Opening the installed hub, or a previously visited /games/ tab, with zero connection
• Playing today's twelve dailies and unlimited practice boards
• Game logos, plus your equipped look and last-known coin balance if you've visited Profile recently while online
• Browsing your achievements from the last time they synced
• Finishing a puzzle and having your streak update locally, with the score, tokens, and any new unlocks queued to post once you're back online

What still needs a connection

• Everyone and friends leaderboards, plus the live top-percent ranks on the win screen and Medals
• Shop purchases and seeing a fresh shop rotation
• Signing in for the first time on a device that hasn't done it before

Achievements aren't locked behind being online, though. You can still open your collection offline and look through everything from your last sync. When an offline finish does reach the server, new unlocks and any Grid Coin awards apply right then, even if that's a day later. And your streak stays tied to the day you actually solved the puzzle, not to whatever moment your Wi-Fi happens to come back.

How to get ready before you go offline

• Install or just open the hub while online. Steps are in the PWA install guide if you haven't yet.
• Give it a second to settle. If you see an Update now prompt after we've shipped something new, tap it while you're still online.
• Worth doing, though not required: open Profile once so your look, achievements, and coin balance are fresh for later offline viewing.
• After that, go ahead and test it. Airplane mode on, force-quit, reopen. You should land right on Games and be able to play.

What happens to your score when you reconnect

Nothing you finish offline gets thrown away. Daily Grid saves it locally with that puzzle's date attached and keeps trying to submit it the moment your device is online again, whether that's the hub reopening, the app coming back to the foreground, or just loading a game. When that submit goes through, even a day later, your time can still land on the leaderboard, your streak for that day still counts, and Grid Coins mint the same as if you'd been online the whole time. If you solved a bunch of games offline in one sitting, give the hub a minute once you're back on Wi-Fi before assuming something didn't post. Medals sometimes need a moment to catch up after a batch like that.

Questions people actually ask me

Can I play with no internet at all?
Yes, as long as you've had one successful online load of the hub before. That's the whole requirement.

Do I need to grab tomorrow's puzzles ahead of time?
No. The app shell is cached, and boards get built locally for whatever the current Pacific date is.

Will my streak break if I submit a day late?
No. Finishing offline locks in that puzzle's date right away. Once the queued submission goes through, the streak for that day is still counted, no matter when the upload actually happens.

Do I still get Grid Coins?
Yes. Minting happens whenever the finish reaches the server, so reconnecting later still gets you credited, once per puzzle.

Why are some logos or cosmetics missing offline?
That usually means it's time to open the hub online again so images and your equipped loadout can get pulled into the cache. I intentionally don't preload every badge image up front, since most of them a given player will never even see.

Is this the same thing as the iOS App Store app?
No, that's a separate product with its own daily puzzle. This post is about the free twelve-game web hub and how its offline mode behaves.

Still free, still no ads in the core loop, and still built with the assumption that the network won't always cooperate.