About Targets

Targets is a daily math game created by team nerdle. Use any combination of the numbers provided to create a calculation and reach the targets shown at the top of the game. Start with 1 small target in level 1 and work all the way up to 4 more challenging targets in level 4.

Matching the target exactly scores 3 stars (⭐⭐⭐). Within 5% scores 2 stars and within 10% scores 1 star. Match 10 targets across the 4 daily levels for the perfect score of 30 stars (and earn 10 nerdlgame points).

The inspiration for Targets: Countdown, Digits and feedback from nerdle fans

Targets is similar in concept to the mathemathical challenge round in the British TV show 'Countdown' that began in 1982.

The game also has similarities to a variety of other games including 'Digits', a daily math puzzle created by the New York Times (NYT). Whilst the NYT's Digits game won a lot of fans, it was always labeled as a “beta” test and was eventually discontinued in July 2023. Perhaps, after their acquisition of Wordle in January 2022, the NYT decided to stick to word games instead. Creating something along similar lines to Digits was one of the most popular requests we received from nerdle fans.

However, we obviously wanted to add more of a mathematical twist to our game. So Targets' 'calculation builder' forces players to think about 'order of operations' to ensure that calculations are mathematically correct.

Order of operations: PEMDAS, BODMAS, BIDMAS?

For all nerdle games, we care about math! Order of operations is the thing that gets more players confused than anything else and that's simply because of the way it has always been taught in school.

We bet you were taught something like "BODMAS" - brackets, orders (powers), divide, multiply, add, subtract. That's fine in some cases. For example 8+4/2 = 8+(2) = 10 and not (8+4)/2 = 12/2 = 6. But these acronyms tend to confuse because they imply that 'divide comes before multiply' (it doesn't) and that 'add comes before subtract' (it doesn't). In fact, whichever acronym you were taught, they have equal priority and therefore actually come in pairs. i.e. it's really (1) brackets, (2) orders (powers), (3) divide and multiply together, (4) add and subtract together. If, for example, divide and multiply both appear together, just read left to right. So 8/2*4 is (8/2)*4 = 16 and not 8/(2*4) = 8/1 = 1 And 8-2+4 is (8-2)+4 = 10 and not 8-(2+4) = 8-6 = 2

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