Onion Dicer

The cuts are yours: every lengthwise cut goes where you swipe or send the knife, at whatever lean, crossing another or not, and every slice where you put it. The knife turns round the onion and tilts about where it goes in; the readout says where its cut will meet the board, how far it leans and where it aims. The model onion is then cut exactly along them, every piece found and weighed — a cut that leans in over the middle can leave two separate chunks of one layer, and they count as two.

The score is the planner’s own yardstick, two numbers made one: the size spread by mass (how far a typical bite of onion is from the average piece, the number the Plan tab predicts) and how far the typical piece is from the size asked for, which is the typical piece of the planner’s cut of the same onion. Score = 100 × e^{−√(spread² + size²)}, so 100 is every piece the same and the right size. The planner’s own cut is the par, about 80.

A cook copying the plan with a knife steady to ±0.6 mm scores about 4 under par, ±1.2 mm about 11 under, and ±2.4 mm about 25 under; the tiers are named for those. Straight-down cuts lose about 14, even slices about 4. The root end, the six millimetres the cuts stop short of, is not scored.

Every onion is drawn at random: yellow and white are common, red uncommon, sweet rare, and about one in seventy is golden. The one you are dealt is yours until you have diced it, through a reload or a replay; after that you can cut it again or take a new one. Onions differ, and the planner’s own cut scores from about 75 to 82 depending on the onion, so the par beside each one is the number to beat.

The clock times each attempt from your first touch on the onion to Dice it!, held while the page is out of sight or you are watching a replay. In Play it scores: a quick cut earns up to a quarter of its own score again, the speed bonus. The whole quarter is yours inside 2½ seconds for each of the planner’s cuts and slices on the onion (50 seconds on an onion of twenty), and it runs down evenly to nothing at 8 seconds each (2:40); the clock burns it down as you cut. It is a share of the cut’s score, so a rushed rough chop gains little. The board ranks the score with the bonus in it; the stars, the par and the tips are the cut’s alone. A duel ranks the cut, against a clock of its own (below). Zen deals the same onions with no clock at all, a new one whenever you like.

Coins. Each onion pays once, the first time you dice it into something that counts (a score of 20 or more): 30 for beating the planner down to 2 for a rough chop, half as much again for an uncommon onion, twice for a rare one and ten times for a golden one, half in Zen and in duels, up to a quarter more for speed in Play, and 15 more for your first onion of the day. Spend them in the shop (🪙, beside Play and Zen) on knives, boards and kitchens, which are looks and change no score, and on goggles. One knife is more than a look: the legendary mirror knife makes every lengthwise cut twice, mirrored across the middle, and the board marks the cuts made with it.

Power-ups. About one onion in five diced in Play drops a power-up as its pieces land. It floats over the board for twenty seconds, blinking at the end: tap it to pick it up. Double coins pays every onion twice for 2½ minutes; Lucky onions deals rare onions more than twice as often for 3 minutes (a golden one still only after an onion that paid). They run on the clock on the wall whatever you are doing, and only in Play; the purse wears each one, its ring emptying as it runs. Neither changes a score.

Tears. Every cut stings, and onions add up: one leaves your eyes watering, three in a row and you can hardly see what you are cutting. Wipe your eyes, take a break, or buy goggles. Duels: Share sends a link carrying your onion and your cut; whoever opens it cuts the same onion, and every cut in it is re-diced on their screen, so a score in a link is only a claim. Pass it round and the link keeps everyone’s. A duel is against the clock: 8 seconds for each of the planner’s cuts and slices on the onion, the same on every phone, counting down as you cut. When it runs out the knife goes down and the onion is diced as it stands, and a cut that took longer counts for nothing.