About Bridge and Torch
Bring a party across a moonlit bridge with one torch and room for two. People travel at different speeds: a pair takes the slower person’s time. Each return helps someone else cross, but adds to your total.
Explore 149 fixed parties with 3–8 travellers, including people who share a crossing time. Finish a route, compare its bridge cost with the minimum, then use Practice to improve it. Your first solve time and lowest bridge seconds stay separate.
How to play
- Goal
- Move everyone across with one torch; carry at most two people and pay the slower time.
- How it ends
- A party ends when everyone reaches the far bank, and you cannot lose.
- Record
- Your first solve time and your lowest bridge seconds are kept separately for each party.
- Choose a party-size shelf, then a party. Opening it reveals the crossing times and starts its first-solve clock.
- Select one or two travellers on the bank with the torch, then press Cross or Return. The torch travels with them.
- A crossing costs the slower selected person’s seconds, in either direction. Two people with equal times remain separate travellers.
- Bring the torch back with someone when people are still waiting on the near bank. The torch cannot cross alone.
- Get everyone to the far bank to finish. There is no deadline or loss; try to reduce the total bridge seconds.
- Undo and Redo change the current route and its cost. Restart restores the starting position and can itself be undone. The first clock keeps running through exploration and menus.
- Your first completed time is kept. Practice can improve bridge seconds without replacing that time.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Tap or click a traveller | Select or deselect that traveller |
| Cross / Return | Move selected travellers with the torch |
| Arrow keys, then Enter or Space | Move focus and activate a control |
| 1–8 | Select or deselect that numbered traveller |
| Z or Backspace / Y | Undo / Redo |
| R | Request Restart |
| Escape | Clear selection, close a panel or return to the chooser |
| Gamepad D-pad / A | Move focus / activate |
| Gamepad LB / RB | Undo / Redo |
| Gamepad B / Start | Cancel or go back / settings |
Tips
- Plan the return A person crossing back spends time without leaving anyone newly across. Choose the returner as carefully as the outgoing pair.
- Compare complete plans Sending the fastest traveller with everyone is a useful starting plan. Sometimes sending two slower travellers together saves more time.
- Watch the torch The highlighted bank and torch show where the next crossing must start. People on the other bank cannot join that crossing.
Good to know
Progress stays in this browser when storage is available. The first clock keeps running through menus and chooser visits. Reload preserves your route and Undo, but the resumed first time stays local; eligible bridge costs may still rank. Settings control music, effects and reduced motion.
Watch how to play
Questions
Is bridge time a countdown?
No. Bridge seconds measure the cost of your route. The first-solve clock measures time spent thinking and playing; neither causes a loss.
Can two equally fast people cross together?
Yes. They are different travellers, and their joint crossing costs their shared time.
Does Undo reset the first clock?
No. Undo removes a crossing and its bridge cost, while time spent exploring still counts. Restart also keeps the first clock.
Can Practice improve a record?
Practice can improve bridge seconds. It keeps the first solve time unchanged, so the two records can have different holders.
