How to play Mastermind / Code Breaker

Quick video on how to play Mastermind. I've also included my favorite strategy.

Play on the web here:

Just substitute the red feedback peg as the black one explained in the video.

Pardon the vertical format, it was the only way I could record on my iPhone.

[reneebwilson]

Thanks. Your strategy works well. Thank you. Had the game as a child NO ONE knew how to play it. Thanks. Glad I decided to pick it up as an adult and then watch your video.

[leeds]

Also, there's some free puzzles online called "Gridworks", which build on the Chocolate Fix board game, and there are also some logic puzzles you can get in magazines which have a grid format.

[yahooo]

ive had this game but never touched it. Thanks to your detailed video, i can try it again. Thanks!:)

[JonnysGameChannel]

That works very well, thanks man.
After a while I stopped using the first row.
It's a bit quicker. Usually you get enough info to work it out as well.

[joepatroni]

Believe it was a board game? Damn, I'm getting old....

[shadaxgaming]

Using four of the same color on each row creates MUCH more confusion. I'll eventually know which colors exist in the code, but then I'm stuck with having to arrange them by luck. When you split them in half like in my example, you at least know which half each color belongs. What's nice about this is that when a white peg comes up in this situation, you know just to swap it with the other spot on it's corresponding half.
My method works in 5 or 6 turns. Using yours, about 7 to 8 with some luck.

[leeds]

Your approach is certainly fast. You might be interested in /. Also, there are MasterMind tournaments. To see the optimum strategy, you can click on the teacher before each go, and press the question mark. I'm looking for something in between that and your approach. Kind regards, David

[leeds]

The optimum strategy will nearly always win in five moves, apparently, but there is a simpler one suitable for the human mind which works nearly as well - the reference for this has gone off the Internet, though.

[shadaxgaming]

Thanks! I am not a programmer though I do work in IT (system administrator, a lot of scripting). I am very fascinated by logic and puzzles.

[shadaxgaming]

I'm flattered, I love Tom Cruise despite all his weirdness lol. Minority Report is one of my favorite movies.

[MrsLunaWolf]

Still so very lost, nothing but a losing streak for me. Thank you for trying to explain the game

[remcat]

Thanks.  The directions don't give any suggestions for strategies and I was stumped as to how to even start.  It is still a lot of thinking and kind of hard.  I don't think this is for 8 yr. olds!  My 12 yr old still may not get it, but your strategy will at least give us a starting point.

[MrEdwardCollins]

No, no, no.

It drives me absolutely crazy to see players playing this game and plopping down all four of one color on the first row. That's not at all ideal.

Solving a Mastermind code is actually quite easy. You can do it every time.

The GOAL, then, ideally, is not just to solve it, which is easy to do, but to solve it in the _fewest rows possible._ THAT's really the aim. (Or it should be the aim. Otherwise, why play?) And tossing down four colors in the first row does not do that.

It has been proven that a first row selection consisting of ABCD or ABCC or AABB are much more informative (better) first guesses than AAAA.

I have a collection of more than 30 different theses (yes, that's the proper way to pluralize thesis!), essays, and papers that I've downloaded from the internet, describing different algorithms on how to solve the game, and none of them recommend AAAA.

Two of your games demonstrated solved the code in seven rows. Seven rows is actually a poor result for Mastermind. (As played with four slots and six colors.) A computer program I wrote in Excel can solve the 4-slot, 6-color version in about 4.5 rows on average. (It plays against itself, without cheating, for as many games as you specify.) Yes, that's a computer... _but humans can do that too!_ It just takes them LONGER to do so, to work out the permutations in their head.

My own average for solving a Mastermind puzzle/code is most certainly 4 point something rows. It's very rare when it take me six rows. Most of the games I play I can solve it in four or five rows, hence the 4 point something average. (Now and then I get lucky and solve it in three rows.) I don't think I've ever used seven (or more) rows. Shoot, my average for SUPER Mastermind (5 slots, 8 colors) is probably 6 point something.

If you really want to get good, your first row guess should almost consist of ABCD or AABC or even AABB. If you do this, you you will find, on the average, that you will solve the puzzle in probably a full row less that what you are averaging now.
A first-row guess of a triple of one color and most certainly a quadruple of one color is not at all ideal.

(And yes, I realize this video was first posted almost six years ago. My comments are for all future people watching.)

Anyway, thanks for reviewing the game and for taking the time to make this video. Happy playing.

[shadaxgaming]

I appreciate the info! Checking it out now, thanks!

[fadsmfawopefaw]

My brother walked in while I was watching this and he asked if I was watching Tom Cruise.

[frankynakamoto]

Very nice video and also well explain, Thank you.

[leeds]

Robert, you might be interested in a book called "Sequencers Level B" - available on Amazon. I am not involved in writing the book. If you have given this book a try, it might give you some different ideas - or at least it should be of interest.

[shadaxgaming]

Wish I could see what you're trying, it'd be fun to show you how to play it.

[leeds]

Sorry - I was saying you might be interested in a website called "Investigations into the MasterMind board game"

[Julia-rquj]

nice strategy, but im trying to work on an optimized way for programming, not sure where i should go from