Last updated on December 7th, 2025 at 11:35 pm
Cardinal Chains – Puzzle Game Review
Cardinal Chains is a Puzzle game from Daniel Nora, first launched in 21st March 2018.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 24+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Cardinal Chains Stand Out
Cardinal Chains is a minimalist puzzle game centering on the concept of non-decreasing sequences.
Each puzzle begins with a monochrome grid of numbers, plus a few colored cells marked with an X. Starting at these cells, you must link up numbers in non-decreasing order until the whole grid is filled with color.
• 500 unique, carefully handcrafted puzzles of varying difficulty, each with a single solution
• Beautiful, lengthy chill-out soundtrack created by accomplished professional artists
• Minimalist, elegant design without timers, ads, purchases or other hassles – just pure gameplay
• Several built-in color themes, including colorblind options. Or…
• …make your own color themes – right from within the game!
• Features achievements and cloud saves
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Cardinal Chains is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 15th October 2025
Recent improvements include:
Minor compatibility improvements.
Download & Availability
Cardinal Chains is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Cardinal Chains on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Good music, visuals, and satisfying sound effects. Puzzle logic is simple and fair. Got this on Linux from itch.io a few years back. Its so good buying again to replay on the go now that we have an iPhone. Highly recommended.
Simple concept. We honestly didnt think Id enjoy this much. Seemed too easy, but they put together quite the variety of challenging puzzles that kept us engaged. Just wish there was a way we could skip a level and go back to it later. Gets kind of frustrating when you get stuck on one, but we always figure it out eventually.
This game is so much fun. It starts easy. Afterward there is a mix of easy and hard puzzles so that you can get a rest with an easy puzzle after solving a harder one. Theyre challenging put not so hard as to be frustrating. Just get it if you like puzzles.
The puzzle style has surprising depth, and is satisfying to solve- this is amplified by how well the interface works. Spend $2 on this instead of spending hours of your life watching ads on a free game.
Well worth the money. You get a ton of puzzles. The description says 500 and Ive been playing it for a few weeks and am only on 150. Highly recommended.
Not much to it, but a simply great puzzle game. Can find ourselves blasting through feeling like a genius then getting stuck on something so simple. Great mix and great fun.
The only negative thing is cloud saves dont seem to work? Do we have to sign into Game Center (bleck) for that.
Its just as the title says – this is a great little puzzle game that we love playing when we have a free moment. Nice sound effects and the visuals are clean and minimal. Love it.
NerdCubed set us onto this with a recommends video. We love it.
A nice casual puzzle game. Not too complicated, but good for a diversion.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.1.3
- Size: 101.24 MB
- iOS: 15.6 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Daniel Nora
Last updated: 15th October 2025 | Genre: Puzzle | Developer: Daniel Nora