How to play Craque Oculto

Craque Oculto ("hidden star" in Portuguese) is a daily football game in the style of Wordle: every day at midnight (your device's local time), a new hidden player kicks off — the same for the whole world. Your mission is to figure out who it is in up to 8 guesses, using football memory's most delicious weapon: the player's career, revealed club by club after each miss.

It's free, runs right in the browser (including WhatsApp's in-app browser), requires no sign-up and is available in Portuguese, English and Spanish. From Pelé to Vini Jr., from Maradona to Messi: Brazilian idols of every era and world stars in the same challenge — easy on Monday, legendary on Sunday. This guide covers everything in 3 minutes.

1. The starting clues

Before your first guess you already know three things about today's player: the sector he plays in (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or forward), his confederation of origin (South America, Europe…) and his career span. For example: "Midfielder · South America · 1998–2015". Enough to start reasoning — not enough to nail it first try.

2. Guessing

Type any famous player's name into the "Who's the player?" field and pick an option from the list. The game understands nicknames and accent-free spellings ("Ronaldinho", "R10" and "Ronaldo de Assis Moreira" all point to the same star) and only accepts names from the list — a typo never wastes a try.

3. The 5-dimension feedback

After every miss, the game compares your guess with the hidden player:

• Nationality — ✔ same country ≈ same confederation, other country ✕ other confederation
• Position — ✔ same position ≈ same sector, other position ✕ other sector
• Birth year — ✔ within 2 years or an arrow about the hidden player: ↓ the player was born earlier ↑ the player was born later than your guess
• Debut decade — ✔ same decade or arrow ↓ the player debuted earlier ↑ the player debuted later
• Clubs in common — the juiciest clue: ≈ club in common: Milan lists up to 2 clubs where both played; ✕ no clubs in common is valuable information too.

Real example: if the hidden player is Ronaldinho Gaúcho and you guess Kaká, you'll see green nationality, green position, green debut decade and "club in common: Milan". Half the football world is instantly ruled out.

4. The career revealed club by club

Besides the feedback, every miss reveals one spell of the hidden player's career, in chronological order: first his youth-to-pro club, then the next one, and so on. Each spell shows a generic crest tinted with the club's colors, the full club name and the years (e.g. "Grêmio · 1998–2001"). If the career runs out before your 8 tries do, special clues kick in: exact nationality, national team and caps, biggest honour, and even the nickname or iconic shirt number.

5. Winning, losing and sharing

Got it? GOAL! You'll see the player's full card and can share your emoji result — spoiler-free — straight to WhatsApp. Missed all 8? The player is revealed with full honours and that result is shareable too. Playing every day builds your streak (🔥), which shows up in your share to taunt your friends.

Strategies to solve it faster

• Open with an information-rich guess: a 2000s Brazilian with a European career tests nationality, decade and several clubs at once.
• Watch the age and debut arrows: two arrows pointing the same way cut away whole decades of candidates.
• The formation club (first reveal) usually gives away the player's country and generation.
• "No clubs in common" also eliminates — avoid guessing teammates of a ruled-out club.

Frequently asked questions

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