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Master Number Strategy and Tips

Here is how to think about winning at Master Number, split into short lessons. Each one reads on its own, and each one comes with a real position: press Try it on the board and you play the move yourself.

Always keep your open number in place

Lesson 1

In Master Number, you're given one digit's exact position for free the moment the round starts — the open number. Since that digit is already settled, put it in the same spot in every guess you make. Ignore it, and you're throwing away a clue you already own.

Here you already know the third digit is 7. Guess something careless like 1234 without using it, and you only get one hit. Guess 1273, keeping the 7 in its known spot, and you jump straight to three hits.

Enter 1273 on the highlighted keypad and submit it. Simply keeping your known digit fixed gets you far more information than a guess made from scratch.

Narrow down the answer from your own clue

Lesson 2

A hit means a digit is right and in the right spot; a blow means a digit is right but in the wrong spot. Combine those two counts with the one digit you already know, and sometimes the answer is fully determined without any more guessing.

Here, guessing 1576 returned three hits and zero blows. Zero blows means the one wrong digit — the 6 you placed fourth — doesn't appear anywhere else in the answer. You already know the fourth digit is 3, so that position is settled. The other three positions must all have matched exactly, since that's what three hits means. The answer is 1573.

Guess something unrelated like 2468 instead, and you spend a turn using none of the clues you already have. Enter 1573 on the highlighted keypad and submit it.

Use your opponent's guesses as clues too

Lesson 3

In Master Number, everyone can see who guessed what and how many hits and blows it scored. Even before you've made a guess of your own, combining someone else's result with the one digit you already know can pin the answer down without spending your turn.

Here your opponent guessed 3819 and scored two hits and two blows — meaning all four digits they used are exactly the digits in the answer. You already know the first digit is 1, so the 3 they placed first is wrong. The 1 they placed third can't be right either, since 1 is already taken by the first digit. That leaves the second and fourth digits as the two hits, matching their guess exactly (8 and 9), which leaves 3 for the third spot. The answer is 1839.

On your turn, enter 1839 on the highlighted keypad. Reading an opponent's guess alone narrowed it down without using any of your own clues.

Once you know the digits, just rearrange them

Lesson 4

Once hits plus blows equal the number of digits, every digit in that guess belongs to the answer. From here you don't need to test any new digits — the only question left is how to arrange the ones you already know. Reach for an untested digit instead, and you spend a turn without using information you already have.

Here, guessing 3640 returned zero hits and four blows. Since hits plus blows total four, the digits 0, 3, 4 and 6 are confirmed to be the answer's digits. Mix in an unconfirmed digit like in 4125, and you throw out two of the three digits you already know for certain.

Enter 4306 on the highlighted keypad. The first digit is the 4 you already know, and the rest reorders 0, 3 and 6 into a new arrangement. Once the digits themselves are settled, it's purely a matter of finding their order.

Try it on the board

Pick a lesson and the board starts from that position. Start over as often as you like.

Now put it to work

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Last updated 2026-09-18 · Run by Qdan, Inc.