App updates can sometimes shuffle the order of puzzles. If this level 214 walkthrough doesn't match your screen, don't worry! You can browse our All Levels guide to find your exact puzzle by its picture.
You are basically building a "plus sign" out of the dark squares to block out the unwanted circles.
Level Overview
What Makes This Puzzle Tricky
You land on the screen—and the prompt reads “Show me my ex.” Your brain instantly jumps to breakup memes or nostalgic flashbacks. You tap around, swipe, squint—nothing responds. The game isn’t teasing you with romance—it’s hiding a geometry riddle in plain sight. That phrase isn’t about heartbreak—it’s a phonetic clue pointing straight to the letter X. Time to shift gears from storytelling to spatial reasoning.
Your Goal
Reveal the letter X using negative space. You’re given a clean 3x3 dot grid and four movable dark red blocks. Your job? Strategically place those blocks to hide the right dots—so the ones left visible naturally spell out X.
- UI drag: Those dim background elements aren’t decoration—they’re interactive puzzle pieces.
- Hidden object: You construct the answer not by adding, but by concealing.
- Visual logic trick: “Ex” sounds like “X”—and here, sound becomes shape.
- Multi-touch: Each block must be placed deliberately to lock in the final pattern. It’s not a mistake—it’s the core mechanic.
What Appears on Your Screen
Let's break down the board state exactly as it appears.
Right in the upper-middle, you get the lowercase text reading show me my ex. beneath a dark void. The text is bright salmon pink. Highly visible.
Directly below that text sits a perfect 3x3 grid of salmon-colored dots . Nine circles staring back at you. Perfectly spaced.
Scattered randomly in the empty space around the grid are four dark red blocks . They look slightly shadowed. Almost like they belong in the deep background layer. One sits top-left of the grid. One sits far-left. Another top-right. The last one hangs out near the bottom-right.
In the top left corner, the standard hamburger menu icon sits quietly. Down in the bottom right, the hint lightbulb waits for you to burn a precious resource. No other buttons exist. No hidden sliders. Just bright text, nine circles, and four dim squares on a dark gray canvas.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The Trap
UI blindness strikes again. Years of app design have trained us to overlook low-contrast shapes tucked into margins—we assume those dark red blocks are just part of the theme or framing. They blend so seamlessly into the background that your eyes skip over them entirely. The game banks on that habit. It funnels your attention toward the vivid text and glowing dots—while the real tools sit silently in the shadows.
First Instincts That Fail
You tap “ex” hoping something pops up. Nothing. You long-press the dots, trying to delete or rearrange them. Still nothing. You try drawing an X freehand across the grid—no recognition. Even shaking your phone won’t help; this puzzle ignores motion sensors entirely. The solution demands deliberate, physical placement—not gestures or guesses.
Player Reactions
I spent nearly ten minutes dissecting the phrase “show me my ex,” dragging letters around like they were magnetic tiles. Total head-scratcher—until I accidentally dragged one of those barely-there red blocks and watched it glide smoothly over a dot. Lightbulb moment: those are the pieces.
Step-by-Step Solution
Preparing the Move
Stop reading the prompt literally. Do the math instead. Nine dots total. A clean X on a 3x3 grid uses exactly five points—the four corners plus the center. That leaves four dots to hide. And guess what? Four dark red blocks sit waiting on screen. They’re not scenery—they’re your erasers.
Executing the Solution
- Press and hold your finger on the first floating dark red block .
- Drag it directly over the top-middle dot in the 3x3 grid. Release your finger. It will perfectly eclipse the dot.
- Grab the second dark red block . Drag it over the middle-left dot and drop it.
- Take the third dark red block . Pull it onto the middle-right dot.
- Grab the final dark red block from the bottom corner. Place it heavily over the bottom-middle dot.
- Look at the remaining visible dots. The top-left, top-right, center, bottom-left, and bottom-right dots now form a massive X .
If It Did Not Work
Sometimes the game engine gets highly picky about object placement. If you covered the four "plus sign" dots and the level didn't instantly clear, check your alignment. A tiny sliver of a salmon dot poking out from behind a dark red block completely breaks the trigger. Nudge the blocks until they completely swallow the circles beneath them. Ensure the block is perfectly centered over the dot. If a block glitches and gets stuck off-screen, open the menu and hit restart.
Why This Solution Works
This puzzle aggressively tests your ability to recognize negative space. The game uses a classic misdirection technique. It gives you nine dots but asks for a shape that only requires five. The remaining four dots are intentional garbage data designed to clutter your brain.
Game is hard Level 214 relies heavily on lateral thinking and terrible puns. The prompt asks for an "ex." Phonetically, that translates directly to the letter "X." The game treats the UI shapes like physical paper cutouts. Instead of drawing the correct answer with a pen, you are erasing the visual noise with cardboard squares. This is a massive recurring theme in this title. Whenever a solution seems completely impossible with the obvious bright tools, look for the camouflage in the dark corners. The instructions are bait; the UI is the real puzzle.
Bonus Tip
Skip the confusion and speedrun this stage if you are replaying. Keep it mechanical.
- Ignore the prompt text entirely.
- Grab the four dark red blocks floating near the screen edges.
- Cover the top-center, bottom-center, left-center, and right-center dots .
- Leave the four corner dots and the center dot totally exposed. Do not waste time tapping the text. Do not bother trying to draw diagonal lines on the grid. Only the dark blocks are mobile. Move them fast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why won't the dark blocks move when I swipe them? You need a firm press. Tap and hold the dark red block for a fraction of a second before dragging. Quick, frantic swipes often fail to register on these background-style objects. Treat them like heavy items.
Can I just tap the salmon dots to change their color? No. The salmon dots are completely static. They exist purely as a background layer for the blocks to cover. Tapping them or holding them does absolutely nothing.
What happens if I accidentally place a block on the wrong dot? Nothing breaks. Just tap and drag the dark red block off the wrong dot and move it over to the correct position. You have completely unlimited moves to fix your layout. No penalties.
Do I really have to use all four of the blocks? Yes. A proper X shape on a 3x3 grid requires exactly five dots. Since you start with nine, you must successfully hide the other four. Leaving even one extra dot exposed prevents the win condition from triggering.
My game froze while dragging a block, what do I do? Sometimes multi-touch inputs confuse the physics engine. Force close the app completely, reopen it, and make sure you only drag one dark red block at a time to prevent memory snags.
More Game Is Hard Solutions
Need another solution? thegameishard.org strips out the fluff and gives you the exact tactical moves you need to clear the board. We build these guides to be fast, accurate, and totally searchable. Share this walkthrough with your Discord group the next time someone gets violently stuck. Keep grinding.



