Squared² Support

Everything the game does, and what to do when it doesn’t

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

GETTING STARTED

Squared² is Dots and Boxes — the pencil-and-paper classic. It plays on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac, and it's a single purchase that covers all of them: buy it once and it appears on your other Apple devices at no extra cost.

The grid starts as dots. On your turn you draw one line between two neighboring dots. Draw the fourth side of a box and that box is yours — marked with your initial or player number — and you immediately move again. Most boxes at the end wins.

• iPhone and iPad — tap the gap where a line belongs. The tappable area is much larger than the line itself, and you can also drag from one dot to the next.
• Apple TV — swipe on the remote to move the focus ring around the board and click to draw. The board offers the across lines or the down lines one set at a time: hold the select button, or press Play/Pause, to switch. Menu backs out of whatever is open, innermost first; it never quits the app from inside a game.
• Mac — click the gap where a line belongs, or drag from dot to dot. From the keyboard: Command-Z undo, Shift-Command-R restart, Shift-Command-M sound. Help > Video Instructions plays the lesson, and Help > How to Play (Command-?) opens the rules, in a game too.
• iPhone Duo — open the phone and the board fills the inner display; close it and your game carries on, on the outer display, right where you were. Stand it partly open like a book and the board stays on the flat half, the scores on the standing one.

WAYS TO PLAY

The main menu asks who you are playing — pick VS AI, NEARBY or ONLINE:

• VS AI — one to three computer opponents at Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert.
• NEARBY — Play Nearby: two to four devices in the same room, over your local network. Under it, Pass & Play instead puts two, three, or four people on one screen.
• ONLINE — Play Online: Quick Async Match, Live Match, or Invite a Friend, for two to four players.

VIDEO INSTRUCTIONS

A short lesson played on the real board, with captions and no narration, in about three minutes: how to use the app — drawing a line, the game screen's buttons, the main menu and Settings — then the basics, the different boards and the ways to play. On an iPhone Duo it ends with half a minute more, a chapter on the phone's poses. Open it from Video Instructions on the main menu, from the button on How to Play, or on Mac from Help > Video Instructions. Pause it, skip five seconds back or forward, jump to a chapter, or read every caption as a transcript. With Reduce Motion on it goes step by step instead of playing. The lesson plays no game of yours: nothing in it is saved or scored.

THE EIGHT BOARDS

Eight grids, from a two-minute teaching board to a marathon:

• Teaching — 3×3 dots, 4 boxes.
• Mini — 4×4 dots, 9 boxes; a two-minute game.
• Quick — 5×5 dots, 16 boxes.
• Casual — 6×6 dots, 25 boxes; the default.
• Club — 8×8 dots, 49 boxes.
• Classic — 10×10 dots, 81 boxes; the classic paper size.
• Marathon — 12×12 dots, 121 boxes.
• Swedish — 6×6 dots with the whole border already drawn when the game starts, so you begin in the midgame and the chain battle is immediate.

Choose the BOARD row, on the main menu or the Play Online page, and pick one from the list. Your choice applies to new games; a match already in progress keeps the board it started on.

THE COMPUTER OPPONENTS

Computer players fill the seats you don't, each with its own name and initial — Inky, Quill, Blot and friends. Four strengths that genuinely play differently: Easy plays loose and gives chains away, Medium plays the percentages, and Hard and Expert read the chains ahead. Every opponent varies its openings, so games don't all start the same way.

WHAT'S A CHAIN, AND WHY DOES IT DECIDE THE GAME?

Every third side you draw on a box is a gift — it lets the next player close that box. Late in the game the board resolves into chains of boxes, and whoever is forced to open a long chain first usually hands it to the other side. Counting before you give is the whole game. How to Play, on the main menu, walks through it.

HINT, UNDO AND RESTART

Hint points out a line worth considering. Undo takes back your last line — against the computer, its reply too. Restart begins the board again. All three are on the in-game toolbar in games against the computer and in Pass & Play; online and nearby there is no taking a line back, and that control is Resign instead. A game in which you used a hint still earns XP, wins and boxes, but it stays off the Longest Chain and Best Win Streak leaderboards.

When a game ends, Watch Replay plays it back line by line.

PLAYING ONLINE

Three ways to play someone who isn't in the room:

• Quick Async Match — pairs you with other players automatically. Turn-based, so you each move at your own pace over hours or days.
• Live Match — both players connected at once, lines arriving instantly.
• Invite a Friend — pick someone by name, choose Live or Async, and they're asked to accept. An invitation arrives on the Play Online hub as its own row with Join and Decline; declining removes it for good.

Online games take two to four players, and all three ways need you signed in to Game Center (Settings > Game Center). In a game of three or four, a player who resigns or drops out is replaced by an Easy computer player so the rest can finish.

Rematch works in every mode. In a live or nearby game the others are asked and choose Join the Rematch or Sit This One Out; a turn-based game starts its rematch through Game Center.

PLAYING NEARBY

Play Nearby is separate from the online modes, and does NOT need Game Center. Two to four devices on the same local network find each other by name and connect directly; with three or four players, one device hosts a table and the others choose it to join. If you're signed in to Game Center your nickname is what the other player sees; if not, your device's name is used. If a line can't be sent to a nearby player the game tells you, and in a two-player game it reconnects on its own and sends it again.

I CAN'T FIND ANYONE NEARBY

Every device must be on the same network with the Play Nearby screen open — discovery runs while you're on that screen, and briefly during a nearby game to reconnect if the link drops. The first time you open it, the device asks permission to find things on your local network; if that was declined, the app can't see anyone. Turn it back on in Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network (on Mac, System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network).

SAVED GAMES

Up to 6 games are kept, saved automatically after every line, and resumed from the main menu. The top one becomes your Resume Game card. Games can be renamed and deleted from the Saved Games list.

MY GAMES AREN'T SYNCING BETWEEN DEVICES

Saved games, records, and your level 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 this 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, and Game Center account. Switching profiles in Control Center switches the app over to that person's games.

LEVELS, LEADERBOARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Every finished game against the computer, online or nearby earns XP, which climbs your level. There are six Game Center leaderboards — Rank Points, Boxes Claimed, Total Wins, Longest Chain, Best Win Streak and Games Finished — and 28 achievements. The full rules, and every leaderboard and achievement, are on the ranks page: https://www.hollender-consulting.com/squared-ranks

WHY DIDN'T THAT GAME EARN ANY XP?

Pass & Play games — two, three, or four people around one screen — deliberately earn nothing, because there is no single player to credit (they can still unlock the Across the Table achievement). Games against the computer, online and nearby all earn, except an online game you resigned from or left. Games against the computer have a daily ceiling of 600 XP: once you reach it the result screen says so, and it resets the next day. Online and nearby games are not capped and don't count toward it. An online game that finished while you were away counts once, when you next open it.

I CAN'T HEAR ANY SOUND

Sound has its own toggle inside the app: on the in-game toolbar, on the main menu and in Settings. It's deliberately independent of the ring/silent switch, so check the in-app setting first.

WIDGET AND SIRI

On iPhone and iPad, the Your Turn widget shows online matches waiting on your move; tapping one opens that match. You can also say "Continue my Squared² game" to Siri, which opens your most recent game.

HOW DO I GET MY PURCHASE BACK ON A NEW DEVICE?

Sign in with the same Apple Account and download the app again from the App Store. There's nothing to restore and nothing to pay again.

CAN I PLAY WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION?

Yes. Vs AI, Pass & Play, all eight boards, saves, hint, and undo work with no network connection at all. Only the online modes, leaderboards, and achievements need connectivity — Play Nearby needs a local network but no internet.

WHAT LANGUAGES DOES IT SPEAK?

Squared² is playable in 50 languages. It follows your device by default, and you can choose another under Language on the main menu or in Settings — the change applies straight away and follows you to your other devices.

DOES THE APP ADVERTISE?

No third-party ads, no tracking, and nothing to buy inside the app. The only thing it promotes is our own other games, behind a More Games From Our Team button 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 chosen Rate — whether you'd rate it.

CONTACT

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