Step Back explained
Step Back has the shortest rules and the trickiest first minute. This guide walks through it with small examples.
What ‘n back’ means
Items appear one at a time: squares lighting up on a board or letters on a card. At 1 back you ask: is this the same as the one just before? In the letters F, F the second F is a match.
At 2 back you compare with the item two places earlier. In K, R, K the second K is a match, while in K, K, R nothing is. At 3 back, it is three places: in T, C, L, T the second T is a match.
What to press
Press Match when you see a match, and do nothing otherwise. The first one, two or three items of a game can never be matches, so they are only there to remember. After that come twenty scored items, and exactly six of them are matches.
How it is scored
Your accuracy is the average of two shares: the matches you found and the non-matches you left alone. Pressing on every item finds all six matches but leaves none of the other fourteen alone, so it scores fifty percent. Never pressing scores fifty percent too. Only real answers move the number.
The result card shows the parts: matches found (out of six), false taps and missed matches.
Keeping the list moving
Say the last items quietly and let the oldest drop off each time a new one arrives. For letters this is easy; for squares, name them like the hours on a clock face or as top, middle and bottom.
If you lose the thread, do not try to rebuild it backwards. Start counting again from the next item; you will be back in step within two or three.
When to move up
Stay at a level until your accuracy is reliably high, then step up. The jump from one back to two back is the largest, because you now have to hold an item while another one passes by.