Connect Four
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About Connect Four
Connect Four is a two-colour strategy game on an upright grid of seven columns and six rows. You and your opponent take turns dropping a disc into a column, and it falls to the lowest free slot. The first to line up four of their own discs, across, up and down, or diagonally, wins. The rules take a minute to learn and a lot longer to master.
Rounds are short, usually three to six minutes, so it fits a quick break. You can play against the computer at three difficulty levels or switch to two players sharing one device. A good game blocks every three-in-a-row threat, builds two threats at once, and finishes in as few moves as possible.
How to play Connect Four
- Choose vs CPU or 2 Players with the button under the board, and pick Easy, Medium or Hard.
- Take your turn by tapping or clicking a column; yellow always moves first.
- Watch the opponent's discs and block any line of three before it becomes four.
- Try to create two different winning threats with a single disc.
- Win by connecting four of your colour; if the board fills with no line, the game is a draw.
Controls
| Keyboard and mouse | Move the mouse over a column and click to drop a disc. From the keyboard, use the left and right arrows to pick a column, then Enter, Space or the down arrow to drop; number keys 1 to 7 drop straight into that column. |
|---|---|
| Phone and tablet | Tap the column where you want your disc to fall. Two buttons under the board switch between playing the computer and two players, and cycle the difficulty. |
Scoring
Against the computer, a win scores 300 on Easy, 600 on Medium and 1000 on Hard, plus 10 points for each unused slot out of 43, so a faster win scores more. A loss scores nothing and a draw gives 200. In two-player mode the winner of a round gets 400 if yellow won and 100 if red won.
Tips and strategy
- Take the centre column early. More winning lines pass through it than any other column, and the computer also values it, so claiming it first matters.
- Look for a diagonal or horizontal line that needs the slot just above an empty spot. Whoever is forced to fill the gap beneath often hands the other player the win.
- Check every opponent move for an open three with both ends playable. If two ends are open, you cannot block both, so stop it earlier.
- On Easy the computer sometimes picks a random column, so build a quiet three and wait. On Hard, play carefully and avoid giving it a free tempo.
- Count free slots before settling into a long game. The speed bonus rewards early wins, so a direct trap is worth more than a drawn-out board.
Connect Four FAQ
▸Can I play with a friend?
Yes. Press the vs CPU button to switch to 2 Players, and the two of you take turns on the same screen, yellow first. The difficulty button is greyed out in that mode.
▸Who goes first?
Yellow always opens, and in the computer mode you play yellow. The computer plays red and replies after a short pause.
▸Does the computer ever make mistakes?
On Easy it adds randomness and sometimes plays a random column, so it can be beaten with a simple trap. Medium and Hard look further ahead and are much harder to trick.
▸Does my score count toward the weekly leaderboard?
Yes. When a round ends, the score is submitted, so wins on higher levels and quicker wins give a bigger number and more XP.
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