Escapement: A Milo puzzle
Build the gears. Let Milo out.
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
108 machines in a nine-floor clock tower, a new one every day, and more cast in the foundry. Place the gears, wind the spring, and see if every lock lands.
Build the machine. Wind the spring. Let Milo out.
Every level is a board of pegs, a tray of gears and a crank on a mainspring. Put the gears on the pegs, then let the spring go: it turns the crank exactly so far, and everything your gears reach has to end up where the level asks.
Two gears mesh when their teeth add up to the gap between their pegs, so eight and twelve fit where twenty would not. Every mesh turns the next gear the other way. A gear in the middle passes teeth along and changes only which way they go. That is most of the rules, and the rest of the game is what you can build with them.
NINE FLOORS, 108 LEVELS
• Mesh: one lock, a few pegs, and the teeth that fit between them
• Pegs: more pegs than a train needs, and a longer wind
• Idlers: ratchets that turn one way only, and dials that want so many turns
• Ratios: two gears on one peg turn as one, and their ratios multiply
• Lifts: a rack rises a tooth for each tooth that turns past it — and from here, Milo walks through the machine while it runs, under crushers that are only up for part of every turn
• Belts: reach across gaps no gear can span
• Bells: a cam rings once for every bump, and a differential adds two turns together
• The Great Clock: an escapement lets the machine move a tooth at a time, so you can slow it down, and you set the tower clock to four
• The Winding Room: a worm turns its gear one tooth a turn and never the other way, and a planetary adds two turns unevenly
THREE STARS
One for solving it. One for doing it in as little brass as the cheapest solution. One for the level's challenge: fewer gears, a size left in the tray, nothing stacked.
EVERY BUILD
Many machines can be solved more than one way. Find them all, and see why each one works: the gears from the crank to the lock, multiplied out.
A NEW MACHINE EVERY DAY, AND MORE
The daily machine is the same for everyone, made fresh each day. Past the ninth floor, the foundry casts new machines without end.
LEARN AS YOU GO
The first level walks you through it: the lock, the tray, the crank and the spring. Every new part explains itself the first time you meet it, and How to play shows each rule on a machine that runs.
Stars and builds found earn Milo hats and coats, and new metals for your gears.
EVERY LEVEL IS PROVED
The rules are worked in exact fractions, never rounded, so a lock is on its mark or it is not. Before a level ships, a search tries every way its gears could go and proves it can be solved, and that its par and its challenge can be met. Stuck, ask for a hint: first which peg to change, then what goes there.
• No ads, no in-app purchases, no accounts, no network
• Nothing is collected; your progress is a file on your device
• Landscape on iPhone and iPad
• Sound and haptics can each be turned off
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The developer, Pablo Miranda, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
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Information
- Seller
- Pablo Miranda
- Size
- 2.7 MB
- Category
- Puzzle
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
9+
- 9+
- Infrequent
Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Copyright
- © 2026 Pablo Miranda