# Yadoku — A new dice puzzle every day > Strategic daily dice placement puzzle game with multiple modes and community features. (iPhone/iPad app by DEREK HELDT-WERLE.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yadoku/id6766631793 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [DEREK HELDT-WERLE](https://appshunter.io/developer/1896309589) - Category: Games, Casual, Puzzle - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 5.00/5 from 1 App Store ratings - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 13.0 · 50 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-05-21 - Data updated: 2026-09-01 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yadoku/id6766631793/reviews.md ## What is Yadoku? A daily dice-placement puzzle. You place dice one at a time on a small grid, and every row and column gets scored against a list of combos: Two Pair, Small Straight, All Odds, Four of a Kind. The same die counts toward both its row and its column, so each placement is a tiny optimization problem. Same dice for everyone, every day. The same 16 random rolls land in your hands as in everyone else's. Your score sits next to a histogram of the world's scores on the same puzzle. Was today an easy 8/8 or a brutal 4/8? You'll know. WHAT'S IN IT • Daily 4×4: 16 dice, max 8 points. New puzzle every day at midnight local time. • Weekly 5×5: 25 dice, max 10 points. Harder grid, fresh puzzle every Monday. • Gauntlet: a survival run of back-to-back boards with climbing score targets. Three hearts, a perk to draft after every clear, and one question: how far can you go? • Twist: 20 puzzles that each bend one rule. Blocked cells, locked dice, no-undo boards, or a golden cell that doubles every line through it. • Free Play: unlimited 4×4 or 5×5 puzzles for practice or warm-up. • Challenges: 100 hand-curated puzzles across 4×4 and 5×5 where a perfect score is always reachable. Earn 1, 2, or 3 stars per level. Ordered easy to hard. • Community: browse puzzles other players have shared. Build your own and share via link. • Streaks: daily and weekly streaks track how many days or weeks in a row you've played. • Stats: average score, best score, score distribution over time. NO ADS, NO TRACKING No banners. No interstitials. No analytics SDKs. The only network calls Yadoku makes are to your account (if you sign in) and to the daily-puzzle service. See the in-app Privacy page for the full data inventory: plain language, no surprises. OPTIONAL SIGN-IN You can play forever without signing in. If you do sign in (magic-link email, no passwords), your stats sync across iPhone, iPad, and the web at yadoku.app. The email is only used for the sign-in link. OFFLINE FRIENDLY Free play and challenges work offline always. Daily and weekly puzzles work offline once they've loaded. ## Key features - Daily 4x4 and Weekly 5x5 puzzles - Gauntlet survival mode - Twist puzzles with rule variations - Free Play for practice - 100 hand-curated Challenges - Community puzzle sharing - Streak and stats tracking ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Yadoku Pro | $2.99 | one-time | ## Frequently asked questions about Yadoku ### What is Yadoku? Yadoku is a daily dice placement puzzle game where you strategically place dice on a grid to achieve high scores based on specific combinations. It offers various modes like daily puzzles, weekly challenges, and a survival gauntlet. ### Does Yadoku have ads? No, Yadoku is ad-free. The developers explicitly state 'NO ADS, NO TRACKING' and do not use any banner or interstitial advertisements. ### Can I play Yadoku offline? Yes, Yadoku is offline friendly. Free Play and Challenges modes work offline at all times, and daily and weekly puzzles can be played offline once they have been loaded. ### What devices does Yadoku support? Yadoku supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices. It also offers synchronization across these devices and the web via an optional sign-in. ### How often are new puzzles released in Yadoku? A new 4x4 puzzle is released every day at midnight local time. A new 5x5 puzzle is released every Monday. ### What is the age rating for Yadoku? Yadoku has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of players. ### How does the Gauntlet mode work in Yadoku? The Gauntlet mode is a survival run of back-to-back boards with increasing score targets. You have three hearts and can draft a perk after clearing each board, testing your endurance. ### What are the benefits of signing in to Yadoku? Signing in to Yadoku (via magic-link email) allows your stats to sync across iPhone, iPad, and the web at yadoku.app. You can play indefinitely without signing in. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 2.1.0 — 2026-08-25 Learn the combos. A new tutorial on the home screen teaches every scoring combo through hands-on lessons. Each one hands you a nearly-finished board and the dice to complete it, so you see exactly how a combo is made and watch it score. Replay any lesson whenever you want a refresher. ### 2.0.0 — 2026-06-24 - Gauntlet, a new survival mode: Boards come one after another with climbing score targets, from 4 of 8 up to a perfect 8 of 8. You start with three hearts: miss a target and you lose one, hit the target and you choose one of three perks. Extra undos, foresight into the next three dice, reroll charges, or a mended heart. The run ends at zero hearts; your best run (boards cleared, then total points) is saved on your device. Find it on the home screen. - Twist, a new challenge ladder: A third tab on the Challenges screen with 20 hand-tuned levels in four tiers. Each level changes exactly one rule: some cells are blocked and their lines can never score, some dice are locked in place before you start, some boards take away your undo, and some have a golden cell that makes every scoring line through it worth double. Stars and level unlocks work just like the classic ladders, and every star threshold is verified to be achievable. ### 1.3.1 — 2026-06-12 - The tutorial now teaches four combos, not one. The hands-on demo at the end of onboarding starts on an almost-complete board where every row is one die away from a different combo. Tapping the glowing cell four times completes a two pair, a small straight, an all odds, and a four of a kind, one reveal at a time, so new players see the variety of ways to score before their first real puzzle. The free-practice round afterwards now starts on a fresh empty board. - Score charts load more reliably. The "yesterday's recap" popup on the home screen and the distribution charts on the Stats screen now wait a little longer for their data before giving up, so the histograms and your percentile fill in on the first try instead of occasionally showing up blank. Your score and the count-up still appear instantly; only the comparison charts wait on the network. ### 1.3.0 — 2026-06-08 Now available in Spanish! ### 1.2.0 — 2026-06-03 This update is all about making Yadoku easier to read, easier to control, and a little smarter on the Stats screen. Accessibility • Larger Text: every screen now reflows cleanly at large system text sizes, so nothing gets cut off when you turn Dynamic Type up. The board, progress dots, and dice tray stay a fixed size, since those are game pieces rather than text. • Reduce Motion: turn it on and the falling-stars celebration is suppressed and the Stats and home score count-ups jump straight to the final number instead of animating. • Color contrast: text and icons were tuned to meet WCAG AA contrast on all four themes, in both light and dark. Community puzzles • A new help screen, opened from the "?" on the community feed, explains the Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impossible difficulty labels, the daily create and publish limits, the editor steps, liking, and reporting. • Finishing a community puzzle now reads exactly like finishing a daily, weekly, or free-play one: tap a die to focus its row, tap again for its column, tap again to clear. Stats • A new "How you stack up" card shows where your average daily score ranks against the rest of the players, measured the same way for everyone. You are never counted in your own ranking, and the card stays hidden until enough players have built up a daily history, so it never shows a misleading number. ## More apps by DEREK HELDT-WERLE - [Yadoku Jr: Kids Dice Puzzle](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yadoku-jr-kids-dice-puzzle/id6779410481) All apps by DEREK HELDT-WERLE: https://appshunter.io/developer/1896309589 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*