Last updated on February 10th, 2026 at 11:41 am
The Guides – Puzzle Game Review
The Guides is a Puzzle/Strategy game from 2 Fountains LLC, first launched in 17th August 2015.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 722+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes The Guides Stand Out
Featured by Apple in:
15 Most Mind-Bending Puzzlers, 15 Most Mysterious Games, The Best Games You’ve Never Played, Challenge Your Brain, Best New Games
“Best Mobile Games of 2015” — CNET
“Best iOS Games of 2015” — Apple ‘N’ Apps
“Best One Handed Mobile Games for Long Commutes” — Appcessories
Consisting of hundreds of extremely challenging codes, puzzles and interactive ciphers, The Guides is a journey that will challenge your wit, stretch your imagination and test your ingenuity in unique and innovative ways.
Simply stated, they’re not easy. Progressing will be difficult, but you have the appropriate tools at your disposal. Everything you need to proceed is — or has been — provided.
Look for clues and patterns to build on what you have learned. Remember what you have seen as for no detail is too subtle or insignificant. As you explore deeper, you’ll begin to unravel the enigma of The Guides.
Peculiar, isn't it?
• • • • • • •
"From the word 'Go'… it tells you nothing. And you have to work it out for yourself. And that, my friends, that is cool." James Gilmour for App Spy
"The Guides gets under your skin… you’ll find yourself thinking about it outside of the game and coming back for more." Jennifer Allen for 148apps
"The Guides is one of the year’s most interesting puzzle games. It’s a beautifully designed toy box filled with an enormous variety of code-breaking ciphers and visual riddles…" Owen Faraday for Pocket Tactics
"It's brilliant, uncompromising, satisfying, and one of the best games I have ever played on my phone… quite possibly on any platform." chanandler of App Army for Pocket Gamer
• • • • • • •
• Four Sections and 100 pages embedded with countless challenges.
• Meticulously designed interactive puzzles and ciphers with each being more unique than the last.
• Piece together the fragmented story to reveal the source of the messages.
• Various game mechanics such as the code interface screen and the title bar to provide added layers of support.
• Integrated decoding tools — including morse, binary and many more — to assist you on your journey.
• Ability to save screenshots to keep track of invaluable clues and notes.
• A distress support system is available if you find yourself stuck, but use sparingly, for your transmissions are limited.
Official Site: theguidesapp.com
General Inquiries: [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/theguidesapp
Facebook: fb.com/theguidesapp
Instagram: instagram.com/theguidesapp
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, The Guides is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 19th March 2024
Recent improvements include:
- Fix for iOS 17
- The Guides is alive, look for more updates in 2024…
Download & Availability
The Guides is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
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:
We love these puzzles and plot line.
Beautiful, minimalist puzzle game.
The puzzles are challenging but not insane. The lore is pretty cool to learn about. The music sets the mood just right. Good game, would recommend.
Excellent set of puzzles and codes to break with an interesting story in the background.
Glad we got this game – we were hesitant. But the puzzles are done well. Some are solved easily, and for others we cant figure out what to do, and have to come back later. It took us quite a few levels just to figure out the interface. For those of us who enjoy puzzles where your first problem when presented with a new screen is, what am we supposed to do with this, this is right up our alley. No directions – just something to figure out. Quite fun.
We are loving the different styles of puzzles and encryptions. We hope the game continues to surprise us.
We dunno, man. Visually pleasing game with cryptographic themes. A fun, though sometimes frustrating, journey.
Perfect for those who love solving codes and secret messages. We feel like Im doing secret spy work and exercising our brain to the max when we play this game. So many secrets and hidden messages! Only wish there was more things like this.
We have been playing this game on and off for several years. We have been coming back to it over and over again and learning how to solve the puzzles on our own. Its very fun and really causes you to think and use all of your senses not just your eyes.
A great puzzle / code breaking game. Mostly pattern recognition and logic. Not too heavy on math. Good narrative hook too.
We definitely recommend playing with a friend in a battle of wits to see who is furthest along the next time you meet.
This is one of if not the best mind twisters we've seen.
A ton of fun. Puzzles are great. Definitely worth the $3 (at time of writing.).
This game is so much fun. We love being challenged and this game is super challenging. We had to ask our friend for help. We LOVE this game.
Still working through them, but enjoying with the family.
Best code breaking game ever. There are one or two puzzles that are almost too hard, but we love this game.
We found this to be a pleasant exercise in thinking outside box. It has become an obsession. Cant put it down.
Its what we hoped it would be. Interesting cyphers and a compelling story.
This game is really fun and is sometimes a challenge. We have only done the first section so far but it is really keeping us entertained. We were able to do the first section pretty quickly though, so we dont think this game is going to take a long time to solve.
Still in the first session, but a great game so far.
Good puzzles…for most part intuitive. Often one walks away for a bit of a break and the the path to a solution will become apparent. We found it most productive not to rush.
Absolutely brilliant!! Make a second one. And a third. Mind blowing. Best app ever.
Highly enigmatic and atmospheric puzzles. None of them are brain busters and in fact most are quite easy, but there are a lot of red herrings. If stuck, try exploring for hints. None of the answers involve super complex encoding schemes (at least not yet – Im only through chapter 1), but a lot of puzzles leave you wondering Was there more information or clues that we needed in the parts we didnt use to solve? Will we need to go back and scour old puzzles for those extra tidbits in a later metapuzzle? Or is it just for atmosphere? We hope that question will be answered by the end.
Dont cheat and you will have some great aha moments.
Hands down best game we have ever played. We just finished the 1st Chapter and we are blown away. Fantastic visuals and even better puzzles. 10/10 would recommend.
Challenging, but not impossible.
We are only halfway through but this is a great game so far. Clever but fair puzzles, very hard though, and minimalist but beautiful, powerful graphics.
We have fun with these perplexing puzzles and challenging ciphers.
Challenging and fun. Everything one could ask for. We hope they make morebut more around using the tools. For example a tooltip on how to use the various decoders and camera tools. It's not intuitive. Figuring out the mechanics around that takes time but when you do it's very fun challenging and rewarding.
This game is difficult, but not too much to keep you from wanting to play. Half the time the answers are so simple that by the time you find them you want to slap yourself (or the developers). Its clever, truly engrossing, and very fun if youre the type of person who enjoys mind games and puzzles. Really a genius little game, thank you.
This game is the best game we ever played, it makes you think so hard and everybody should have it.
The graphics are clean and we enjoy puzzles – if we can solve them! Guides is way above our level but can cheat with web.
We are loving the puzzles! Will grudgingly admit to needing help but thoroughly enjoying the game.
Great game! There arent any explanations or tutorials, which lends to the mysterious nature of the overall experience, but you have to notice when some things have been added to your inventory that are necessary to continue. Definitely worth the price.
We love the approach to puzzles in this game.
What fun. Dontover think the puzzles to maintain ones sanity.
One of the best games Ive ever played. No tutorial, no guide. A true test of problem solving. Dont cheat. Take your time. Think it through. Rewarding when you solve each step of the puzzle.
We personally have lots of attention issues and usually this helps a lot.
The puzzles a very intuitive and if you get the compendium you can read the story. We would recommend getting the compendium with it.
Never ceases to be a mind maze of good puzzles.
Ive played through this game multiple times and as a person who loves complicated puzzles, this game has been a ton of fun.
Unlike any game Ive played before. Puzzles are challenging, but cleverly simple. An intriguing story line adds a lot of character interest to the experience. Ive only finished one part so far, and read a bit of the compendium app, which is definitely worth the extra buck for the added story details, if not needed to solve puzzles. Really loving the experience. Find ourselves thinking over puzzles when our mind is otherwise at rest or occupied with mundane stuff. GREAT work dev team! Thanks for this.
Just a fun puzzle game. Love the "ah ha!" moments when the thing staring you in the face finally comes into focus.
Good game for warming brain up in morning on train commute.
If youre looking to zone out and kill a few minutes, you may want to look elsewhere. If youre up for a mix of clever, obscure and unique mini-puzzles, dont hesitate. This game is right up our alley. Its sometimes frustrating, but always fun. Im addicted and only about 2/3rds of the way through. We already dont want it to end (but downloaded the sequel for when it does).
At once challenging and simple.
One of our favorite apps. If you like solving puzzles and deciphering cryptic clues, you will be hooked on this app. It may drive you mad at times, but in the best possible way.
This is for you. Clues are there just be patient.
We have. Question if someone can answer – how can we save the game? Whenever we close app it does not save where we are. But we love the game so play it.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.8
- Size: 44.92 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: 2 Fountains LLC
Last updated: 19th March 2024 | Genre: Puzzle, Strategy | Developer: 2 Fountains LLC