Odin's Drop 4+

Need a hand? Email sean@hollender-consulting.com and I'll get back to you.

GETTING STARTED

Odin's Drop 4+ is a one-time purchase. No ads, no tracking, nothing more to buy — not now, not later. It plays on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac, and the whole game works with no account, signed out of everything, with no network at all.

All four boards share one move: on your turn you pick a column and your coin falls to the lowest free cell in it. What changes from board to board is the size of the board and how many coins in a row you need. Two optional House Rules add twists of their own (see House Rules below).

• iPhone and iPad — tap the column you want, or drag your finger across the board to pick the column before you lift it.
• Apple TV — swipe on the remote to move the highlight to a column and click to drop your coin. Menu backs out of whatever is open; Play/Pause opens the game menu.
• Mac — click the column. From the keyboard: Command-Z undo, Shift-Command-R restart, Shift-Command-M sound, Command-? How to Play. The Help menu opens How to Play too.

WAYS TO PLAY

• Vs the computer — Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert on any board. You always take the first move.
• Pass & Play — two people sharing one screen.
• Play Online — Quick Async Match, Live Match, or an invitation to a friend.
• Play Someone Nearby — two devices in the same room, no account needed.

THE FOUR BOARDS

One rule, four sizes:

• Drop Three — five columns, five rows, three in a row. A small, quick board, sized for young players and a first game.
• Drop Four — seven columns, six rows. Four in a row, column or diagonal wins. The one everybody knows.
• Drop Five — nine columns, seven rows, and it takes five in a row. There is more room to build, and a single threat is never enough on its own.
• Drop Six — eleven columns, eight rows, six in a row. A long game of threats stacked on threats; the middle columns matter even more than usual.

A full board with no line is a draw on every board, unless Undertow is on (see House Rules). Pick a board in World of Drop 4+ on the main menu, or tap the board name on the setup card. Your choice applies to new games — a game already under way keeps the board it started on. How to Play, also on the main menu, gives you the rules of whichever board is selected.

HOUSE RULES

House Rules, the third circle on the main menu (and a row in World of Drop 4+), adds two optional rules to any board. Switch on either one, or both:

• Runestones — neutral runestones land on the board before play: one on Drop Three, two on Drop Four, three on Drop Five and four on Drop Six. Every game opens from a different position. A coin may stack on a stone, but no line runs through one.
• Undertow — on your turn, drop a coin or pull one of your own from the bottom row, and the whole column sinks. If the sinking completes a line for you, you win; a line for your opponent alone loses; a line for both of you is yours. A full board is not the end: when a position repeats three times, the game is a draw.

To pull, choose Pull in the row of round controls under the board (on Apple TV, Pull a coin on the side rail), then the column.

House Rules apply to every new game — solo, Pass & Play, online and nearby — and never change a game already under way. Online and nearby, a game is played under the House Rules of the player who opens it, so both players always play the same game. An invitation from a friend for a turn-based game, or from someone nearby, names those rules before you accept. In a live game the host is chosen by a coin toss, and the host's rules apply. How to Play, opened during a game, shows a card for each rule in play. A win against the computer with a house rule on earns the Law of the Longhouse achievement.

THE COINS, AND WHO IS WHO

By default the coins are painted Viking portraits — a hundred of them, the same art as our Odin's Viking Chess — and every game deals a fresh pair. One side plays gold-rimmed coins and the other steel, so the two seats are called Gold and Steel; against the computer and online you are told which you are. A saved game keeps the coins it was dealt, and a rematch deals again.

Settings > Coins offers three other looks: Engraved Portraits (the same hundred people, engraved), Viking Runes (a Norse symbol for each side, on gold and steel) and Checkers (the pieces from our Odin's Checkers, where the two seats are called Red and Black). The choice belongs to your device — an online opponent sees the coins they picked — and with the system's Differentiate Without Color setting on, the black checkers pieces wear a white ring. The coins are only a look: they never change how the game plays, and there is nothing to collect or unlock.

THE COMPUTER OPPONENTS

Four strengths that genuinely play differently. Easy plays loosely and makes human mistakes. Medium thinks a few moves ahead. Hard plans carefully. Expert looks deep and punishes a loose column.

Expert can be beaten on every board. Drop Four is, in theory, a win for the first player with perfect play — but the computer does not carry a perfect opening book, so a careful game beats it, and Drop Five and Drop Six have never been solved by anyone.

THE COACH

Switch Coach on before you start a game against the computer — or tap the lightbulb during one — and the app points out a column worth considering, with a short note on why. It exists only in games against the computer; a hint in Pass & Play would be read by the person sitting opposite you.

A game you start with the Coach switched on still goes into your win/loss record, but it earns no XP. Turning the Coach on part-way through a game marks that game as assisted, which keeps it out of the Unaided achievement.

UNDO AND RESTART

Undo takes back your last coin; against the computer it takes back the computer's reply as well. Restart clears the board and starts a new game on the same board, with a fresh pair of coins and the House Rules as they are set now. Both are in the row of round controls under the board, and neither exists in an online match — there is no taking a move back from an opponent. Online, that control is Resign instead.

SAVED GAMES

Up to six games are kept. Every move saves automatically, so leaving the app never loses a game. The most recent save becomes the Continue card at the top of the main menu and the rest sit under Saved Games; hold one there to rename or delete it. A finished game leaves the list. Online matches are not saved this way — they live on Game Center's side and are waiting for you on the Play Online hub.

MY GAMES AREN'T SYNCING BETWEEN DEVICES

Saved games, your records, your rank and even your chosen language sync through your own iCloud account. Make sure every device is signed in to the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive turned on. On Apple TV that is under Settings > Users & Accounts. After a fresh install it can take a moment — or one relaunch — for the first sync to arrive.

APPLE TV IS A SHARED DEVICE

On Apple TV each person's profile gets its own saved games, records, rank and Game Center account. Switching profiles in Control Center switches the app over to that person's games.

PLAYING ONLINE

Three ways to play someone who isn't in the room: • Quick Async Match — pairs you with another player automatically. It is turn-based, so you each move at your own pace over hours or days, and Game Center tells you when it's your move. • Live Match — both of you connected at once, moves landing instantly. • Invite a Friend — pick someone by name, choose Live or Async, and they are asked to accept. An invitation arrives on the Play Online hub as its own row with Join and Decline.

These three need you signed in to Game Center (Settings > Game Center).

Matchmaking is per board, not per House Rule: a Quick Async Match on Drop Six pairs you with somebody else who chose Drop Six, whatever House Rules either of you has on. The hub marks the boards where players are active — a board without that mark simply hasn't been checked, which is not the same as empty, so it is always worth starting a search.

When a game ends, either player can offer a rematch. In a live or nearby rematch the seats swap, so whoever moved second last time moves first; in a turn-based rematch, whoever starts it takes the first move. Every rematch deals a new pair of coins and keeps the House Rules of the game before it.

WHY CAN'T THIS ACCOUNT SEND A LIVE INVITATION?

Because Game Center will not deliver a live invitation from an account that has communication limits, and on a child account those come from the account's age under Family Sharing — not from anything set in Screen Time. Nothing you can switch on the device changes it. The app checks before it asks, so you get an explanation instead of an invitation that silently never arrives.

Everything else on that account still works: Live Match will still find a random opponent, a friend can still invite that account, Quick Async Match works normally, and Play Someone Nearby doesn't use Game Center at all.

There is a second, different case. If Multiplayer Games is switched off for the account, live play cannot connect at all — and that one IS a Screen Time setting. Whoever set the device up can allow it under Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Nearby play works either way.

LIVE MATCH ON APPLE TV

Apple allows real-time matchmaking only for the Apple TV's main user. An added profile is refused by Game Center itself, even when it is signed in to iCloud, and the app says so on the search screen rather than spinning. Quick Async Match works for every profile, and so does Play Someone Nearby.

PLAYING SOMEONE NEARBY

Play Someone Nearby is separate from the three modes above and does not need Game Center or the internet. Two devices on the same local network find each other by name and connect directly. If you are signed in to Game Center your nickname is what the other player sees; if not, your device's name is used.

I CAN'T FIND ANYONE NEARBY

Both devices have to be on the same network with the Play Someone Nearby screen open — discovery only runs while you are on that screen. The first time you open it, the device asks permission to find things on your local network; if that was declined the app cannot see anyone, and it will say so. Turn it back on in Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network (on Mac, System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network).

CAN I PLAY WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION?

Yes. All four boards, both House Rules, all four computer strengths, Pass & Play, saved games, undo and the coach work with no network at all and with no account. Only the online modes, leaderboards and achievements need connectivity — Play Someone Nearby needs a local network but no internet.

RANK, LEADERBOARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Every finished game against the computer or online earns XP, and XP climbs your level: Wanderer, Raider, Shieldbearer, Huscarl, Jarl, High King, and then Grand King, numbered again every five levels. A win earns the full amount for the difficulty you beat, a draw half, a loss a quarter — and the board scales it: Drop Three is worth three quarters of Drop Four, Drop Five a quarter more, and Drop Six one and a half times as much. The first XP-earning game you play on each board each day carries a small bonus. Your Rank, opened from the rank badge beside Play, shows where you stand; Your Games keeps the per-board record and your streaks.

Signed in to Game Center there are 10 leaderboards — total wins, best streak, fastest Expert win, weekly wins, online wins, rank, and one for each of the four boards — and 23 achievements. Trophies on the main menu opens them.

WHY DIDN'T THAT GAME EARN ANY XP?

Three reasons, all deliberate. Pass & Play earns nothing, because there is no single player to credit. A game started with the Coach switched on earns nothing. And there is a daily ceiling of 600 XP on games against the computer — once you reach it the result screen says so, and it resets the next day. Games against other people are not capped.

I CAN'T HEAR ANY SOUND

Sound has its own switch inside the app, in the row of controls under the board and in Settings. It is deliberately independent of the ring/silent switch, so check the in-app setting first. iPhone also plays a small haptic with each sound, and that one is independent of the sound setting; iPad has no haptic engine, so it stays quiet there by design.

WIDGET AND SIRI

On iPhone and iPad, the Your Turn widget shows the online matches waiting on your move; tapping one opens that match. You can also say "Continue my Drop 4+ game" to Siri, which opens your most recent game.

CHANGING THE LANGUAGE

Odin's Drop 4+ is playable in 50 languages. It follows your device by default, and you can override it under Settings > Language — the change applies immediately, with no relaunch, and travels to your other devices through iCloud.

ACCESSIBILITY

Every column on the board carries a VoiceOver label saying which column it is, how full it is and whose coins are in it, runestones included, and the game announces each drop and the result. Text follows Dynamic Type, and the falling coins respect the system Reduce Motion setting.

IS THERE ANYTHING TO BUY INSIDE THE APP?

No, and it stays that way. Your purchase is the whole game: there are no ads, no tracking, no in-app purchases, no subscription and no locked boards. There are no analytics and no third-party software development kits of any kind in the app, and nothing about you is collected or sent anywhere. The only thing the app ever promotes is our own other games, in a short list you can walk straight past. After your third, tenth and twenty-fifth win it may ask — through Apple's own rating prompt, never more than once a month, and never again once you have tapped Rate — whether you'd rate it. The full details are on the privacy page: https://www.hollender-consulting.com/odins-dropfour-privacy

CONTACT

sean@hollender-consulting.com

Hollender Consulting, LLC — https://www.hollender-consulting.com/