How NoCharge saves scores without an account

Bottom line: A plain-language map of NoCharge’s local scores, Beacon Lattice progress, shared mute preference, browser limits, and Clear Game Data control.

NoCharge has no player accounts or score database. Current games remember a small set of results and preferences through localStorage, a browser feature that lets a site retain text values for later visits in the same browser profile.

Local storage is not a NoCharge login, is not synchronized, and should not be described as encrypted or inherently secure.

What the games store

The current implementation can use these NoCharge game keys:

• nocharge:memory-match:high for the Memory Match high result and nocharge:memory-match:best-moves for its lowest completed move count.
• nocharge:word-tile-rush:high for the best Word Tile Rush score.
• nocharge:color-flip:high for Visual mode and nocharge:color-flip-turn-based:high for Turn-based mode.
• nocharge:beacon-lattice:high for the highest completed-puzzle count written alongside Beacon Lattice progress.
• nocharge:klondike:games-won and nocharge:klondike:best-moves for Klondike results.
• nocharge:freecell:games-won for FreeCell results.
• nocharge:nonogram:puzzles-revealed for Nonogram results.
• nocharge:2048:best-tile for 2048 results.
• nocharge:tile-garden:best-tier for Tile Garden results.
• nocharge:word-search:puzzles-solved and nocharge:word-search:last-list for the Word Search completion count and last chosen theme.
• nocharge:sudoku:puzzles-solved and nocharge:sudoku:current-puzzle for Mini Sudoku completions and the in-progress puzzle.
• One bounded nocharge:passplay:match:<game> key per Pass & Play game, holding the most recent match only.
• nocharge:pref:beacon-lattice-progress for the current puzzle, completed puzzle IDs, and best solved beacon counts.
• nocharge:pref:klondike-draw-mode, nocharge:pref:color-flip-rotation, and nocharge:pref:sudoku-pencil-marks for per-game choices.
• nocharge:pref:game-muted, nocharge:pref:sound-enabled, nocharge:pref:sound-volume, and nocharge:pref:ambient-sound for the shared sound choices.
• nocharge:pref:recently-played for at most four stable game IDs and last-played timestamps.

Recently Played does not retain moves, selected cards, typed words, tile paths, scores, or a device identifier. A game enters that list only after a meaningful action inside the mounted game, not after a card or page view.

What is not uploaded

NoCharge does not send these score and preference values to its own server. There is no account endpoint to receive them. That is why a score on one phone does not appear on a laptop, and why another browser profile on the same computer starts with its own local state.

Optional analytics and Google advertising are separate services with separate choices, described on the Privacy page. Keeping the analytics consent choice in local storage does not turn game results into analytics. Clear Game Data deliberately leaves that consent record unchanged, and Google Privacy & messaging choices are managed by Google rather than the game-data control.

Browser limits

A browser can remove local storage when site data is cleared, a profile is reset, storage is restricted, or private-browsing sessions end. Some privacy tools remove it automatically. Storage can also be unavailable because of browser policy or limits. Games continue to work when possible, but the result may not survive a reload.

If a result is missing:

1. Confirm that this is the same device, browser, and browser profile used before.
2. Check whether private browsing or an automatic site-data cleaner is active.
3. Check whether site storage is blocked for nocharge.net.
4. Remember that using Clear Game Data or clearing browser/site data intentionally removes the saved values.
5. Try another run after storage is available; there is no server copy to restore.

Clearing only game data

The Privacy page offers Clear Game Data. It removes the score and progress keys above — including Memory Match best moves, Beacon Lattice progress, and the six Pass & Play match records — plus the shared mute and sound preferences and the Recently Played list. It does not call localStorage.clear(): unrelated storage on the origin is left alone. NoCharge’s analytics consent remains as chosen, and the control does not claim to erase Google’s separate advertising-consent records.

Browser settings can clear all site data more broadly, but that may also remove privacy choices and other site storage. Use the narrower NoCharge button when the goal is only to reset local play history and preferences.

The practical rule is: treat local results as a convenience on this browser, not as a durable backup. Open Privacy to review choices or clear the game-only values.