REFLEX & FOCUS
Brain GamesFree

Pipe Connect

Turn the pipes to join the inlet to the outlet. 20 levels; each board opens the next.

Difficulty
Intermediate
Time
300 seconds
Measures
Problem solving · Boards solved · Taps
Input
Click or tap
You control
Easy, Normal or Hard (starting level 1, 3 or 6), starting level 1–10, duration, background and sound

Set up and startAll exercises

What this measures

This task records problem solving on a fixed, repeatable version of the task. Your result is comparable to your own previous attempts on the same device.

It does not diagnose anything, and it does not claim to improve anything beyond performance on this task. Reported times include display and input latency from your own hardware.

Stop if you feel dizzy, nauseous or strained.

How it works

Tap a pipe to turn it a quarter turn. Make one connected path from the gold inlet on the left to the outlet on the right. 20 levels: each board you connect opens the next level, and you can start at any level you have opened. The board grows from 4 × 4 to 9 × 9 and the path gets longer. Fewer taps earn a bonus.

Your result

Score (each right answer scores its level (1–10)). Higher is better. Each difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard) keeps its own personal best, and custom settings are saved but not ranked, so your bests stay comparable.

Read this before you compare

Practice makes you better at this game, and that is well supported by research. Better school, work or everyday thinking from brain games is not proven (large reviews, 2016). Not medical advice.

The science, briefly

Each brain game is based on a task that psychology and neuroscience labs use to measure one ability: holding things in mind (working memory), keeping focus, ignoring distractions, switching rules, planning ahead, or processing speed. Batteries such as Cambridge CANTAB, the NIH Toolbox and TestMyBrain use tasks like these.

People reliably get better at the games they practise. Large reviews (Simons and colleagues, 2016; Melby-Lervåg, Redick and Hulme, 2016) found little evidence that brain games improve everyday thinking, school or work results, or intelligence. So treat your score as how you did on this game, not as a measure of your brain.

The level adapts as you play: two right answers in a row move you up, a wrong answer moves you down, so each round settles near the edge of what you can do.

Tips

  • Play when you are rested; tiredness and caffeine both change scores.
  • Compare only with your own earlier rounds at the same settings.
  • Short, regular rounds beat one long session.

Watch Pipe Connect videos on our YouTube channel →

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