Tap numbers 1 to 25 in order as fast as possible. The 5×5 grid speed test — race the clock for your best time.
Press Start to reveal the board. The numbers 1 to 25 are scattered over a 5×5 grid in a new random order every game. Until you press Start, every square shows a question mark, and the clock starts the moment the numbers appear — so the search for 1 is already on the clock.
Tap the numbers in ascending order. The Next box at the top always shows the number you need. A correct tap turns that square into a dimmed check mark. A wrong tap makes the square shake and flash red, but it adds no time; the only cost is the moment you lost. Tapping a square you have already cleared does nothing.
The timer counts up in tenths of a second and stops the instant you tap 25. That time is your score, and lower is better. Your best time is kept on this device. The finish screen has a Save score button that submits the time to the Hall of Fame, where only the ten fastest runs are listed. Tap New at any point to abandon a run and get a fresh shuffle.
There is no free look before the race: every square is hidden until you press Start, and the clock is already running when the numbers appear. That makes the opening the expensive part of every run. When you hunt for 1, all 25 squares are candidates; by the time you want 20, only six squares still show a number, because everything you have cleared fades to a dim check mark. Counted that way, about half of all the searching in a run happens before you reach 9 — so if your times have stalled, the first eight numbers are where to look for gains.
The real trick is to keep searching ahead. While your finger is pressing the current number, your eyes should already be locating the next one or two. Treat the grid in loose zones rather than scanning every cell each time — once you tap a number, the eye that found it can immediately sweep its neighbourhood for the following value. Smooth and continuous always beats fast but stop-start.
Mistakes are cheap here; hesitation is not. A wrong tap only shakes the square and never adds seconds, so when you are fairly sure you have found the right number, tap it instead of checking it twice. The same logic applies to bad shuffles. If you are chasing a record and the opening numbers turn out to be scattered across the far corners, tap New — an abandoned run never counts against your best time, and a fresh board may put 1, 2 and 3 side by side.
Use your hands as well as your eyes. The grid is only five squares wide, so if you hold the phone in both hands, each thumb has to cover just two or three columns: give the left thumb the left side and the right thumb the right, and while one thumb taps, the other can already be hovering near the next number. Finally, judge your progress over several boards rather than one. Every game is shuffled differently, and a friendly layout can flatter a single time by a second or two.