How to play

What you are doing

A keep is the strong inner part of a castle — the last building you would defend. You are climbing this one, room by room, to the roof.

A woman meets you at the gate. She looks after the place. We call her the Warden because she keeps watch, the way someone keeps a house, not because this is a jail. On later floors you meet the Cooper (stores), the Captain (night watch), the Key (vaults), and the Banner (the roof).

Each room is a small puzzle. Clear it, look at the castle painting, go up. After the roof the mill still cuts new rooms, so the climb does not stop. Couch night is you and someone on the same Wi-Fi: pick 1, 2, or 3 minutes, same room, live scores at the top. Highest score when the watch ends holds the hall.

The board

Drag a tile onto the one next to it — up, down, left, or right. If that makes three of the same color in a line, they disappear and new tiles fall in from the top. If it does not, they slide back. You spent nothing.

Five colors:

• Red flame — ember
• Green leaf — moss
• Blue wave — tide
• Gold comb — honey
• Purple with a gold moon — night

Brick walls do not move. Wooden crates break if you match next to them.

The extra pieces

Sometimes a longer match leaves a tool on the board. You have to drag that tool onto a neighbor to use it. Matching next to it will not set it off by itself. That used to happen. It felt random. It does not anymore.

• Arrow (Torch) — you made four in a line. Drag it. It clears the row or the column it points. The pointy end is the direction.
• Orb (Power) — you made five in a line. Drag it onto a color. Every tile of that color falls.
• Swirl (Gyre) — you made a 2×2 square. Drag it. It jumps (it likes crates) and blows up a small square.
• Barrel (Cask) — you made an L or a T of five. Drag it. It blows up the tiles around it.

If you drag one tool onto another, both go off. Two arrows each clear their own line — not the whole board.

Later rooms

• Cold bowls — iron dishes on the wall. Match three next to a dish to light it. Light every dish in the room. An arrow that clears tiles next to a dish counts. The Hammer can tap a dish to light it.
• Hung arrow — there is already an arrow on the board. Drag it. That is the whole job.
• Cracked walls — match next to the crack. It opens. Real brick stays.
• Marked path — clear the tiles sitting on the marked floor.

The little tools under the board

When you climb well — three stars, or a new high score for the keep — she may leave a Hammer, an across-arrow, or a down-arrow. The first room always leaves a Hammer so you know they exist. Tap the tool, then tap a tile. They do not use a move. You can save them.

Stars

One star means you cleared the room. Two or three means you had moves left. That is all “three stars” means. Not a secret grade from the castle.

The map

After a room you see the castle. Then the next door. Courtyard first. Then stores, watch, vaults, roof. You cannot jump from room 16 to 101. If a floor is locked, keep going up the one you are on.

Two people on the same Wi-Fi play the same room against the clock. Scores update live at the top. Not a shared board — each phone has its own stones from the same seed.

The Table tab is not the climb. Three is three-in-a-line. Four is drop a stone, four in a line. Play the Warden, or host on this Wi-Fi.

Get the game

Download Keep Three · TheCriners.com · Chris Criner, Ohio.