Guide
Tic Tac Toe Multi Theme: how Easy, Hard and Extreme really play, and the opening that beats Hard every time
The three AI levels follow very different rules. Here is what each one looks at before it moves, a corner opening that always wins against Hard, why Extreme can only be drawn, and how the eight themes keep separate records.
Tic Tac Toe Multi Theme is the classic 3×3 game: get three of your markers in a row, across, down or diagonally. You can play Vs AI or Vs Friend on one device, and dress the board in one of eight themes with emoticon markers. You can play it in your browser.
Player 1 always moves first, in every new game and after Restart. Against the AI you are Player 1, so the first move is always yours.
What each AI level does
- Easy mostly plays a random empty square. Only about one move in three does it stop to check whether it can win at once or must block you, so it often leaves a line open.
- Hard follows a fixed order: win if it can, otherwise block your winning square, otherwise take the centre, otherwise a random empty corner, and only then an edge. It never looks two moves ahead.
- Extreme searches every possible continuation of the game before it moves. It never loses.
The opening that always beats Hard
Because Hard only reacts to the move in front of it, it cannot see a fork coming (one move that makes two threats at once).
- Start in a corner.
- Hard takes the centre.
- Take the opposite corner.
- Hard now has no win or block to make, so it picks one of the two empty corners. That gives it two in a row, and you block.
- Your block lines up two threats at the same time. Hard can stop only one; finish the other.
We checked every reply Hard can make: a corner opening followed by correct blocks always ends in a win. Opening in the centre or on an edge does not guarantee one.
Against Extreme, a draw is the best result
Tic-tac-toe played perfectly by both sides is a draw, and Extreme plays perfectly. Treat a draw as a good game: keep blocking every two-in-a-row and take a corner whenever you have nothing to block.
Themes, records and markers
There are eight themes: Classic Blue, Sunset Glow, Forest Moss, Candy Pop, Ocean Wave, Midnight Neon, Rose Garden and Mint Fresh. Each theme keeps its own record on the Leaderboard screen: Wins, Losses, Draws and Best streak, stored on this device.
- Only Vs AI games count. Games against a friend are not recorded.
- Easy, Hard and Extreme all go into the same record of the theme you are using. If you want a streak that means something, keep one theme for one level.
- A loss or a draw ends your current winning streak.
In Markers you pick a piece for Player 1 and Player 2 from 22 designs: faces, animals and characters such as a cat, a robot or a ghost, and symbols such as a star, a sun or a gem. Both players can't use the same one; choosing the other player's marker swaps them.
More on the Tic Tac Toe Multi Theme page, or try the corner opening now.
