How to play All Square
The trip is over and everybody owes everybody. Each friend has a balance, in red if they owe and plain if they're owed, and it all adds up to $0. Settle up in as few payments as you can.
- Pay: tap someone who owes, then someone who is owed. The payment is always the smaller of the two amounts, so at least one of them lands on $0 and is crossed out.
- The trick: friends whose balances add up to exactly $0 can settle among themselves in one payment fewer than there are of them. Three friends, two payments. Find those groups; a payment between two different groups wastes one.
- Par is the fewest payments that settle the trip, and your budget is par + 1. One payment over par costs 30 seconds. Once the trip can't be settled in the payments you have left, the round is over.
- The clock starts at your first tap. Your score is your time, plus any penalty.
The week
Monday is eight friends in round $5 amounts, with one pair that simply cancels out. The week adds people, odd dollars, near misses and twins, and by Sunday it's ten friends and groups that add up to $0 without being the answer.
Today's trip is the same for everyone, changes at midnight UTC, and you get one go. Settle it to land on today's board under a funny name, like Soggy Waffle. Then play another trip for practice. A pencil wouldn't hurt.