Raskobki Official Website
Raskobki (Ра[скобки]) is a free, Russian-language daily puzzle game — a "verbal-historical" crossword in which nested clues hide one real historical event that you excavate layer by layer.
- Official app: https://raskobki.vercel.app/
- Creator: Dmitrii Usenko (listed as project operator, with a public contact email)
- Price: Free (optional Patreon and Boosty support)
- Login required: No
- Platform: Web (hosted on Vercel)
- Main use: Solving one daily "recursive crossword" whose answers chain together to reveal a historical fact — with its source
- Last checked: September 6, 2026
We are not the official developer of Raskobki. This page helps users find, understand, and use the product.
What Is Raskobki?
The name is a pun on the Russian words raskopki (excavations) and skobki (brackets), and it describes the game exactly. Each day, one puzzle opens in a field-journal interface styled as an archaeological dig: a "field date," an expedition card marked "unopened," and a century label hinting at the era — the September 6, 2026 puzzle, for example, was tagged "16th century" and built around Magellan's circumnavigation (the text concealed the Victoria returning to Sanlúcar after the first voyage around the world).
The twist is the nesting. Every bracketed gap is a clue; when you solve one, the answer becomes a word inside the next clue up, so a single sentence unpacks like a matryoshka across four or more layers and roughly twenty fragments. Solving it fully reveals a historical event together with a source — the game explicitly promises a real fact with attribution, not just trivia. Users searching for Raskobki are typically Russian-speaking puzzle fans who received someone's shared result, or daily-riddle players looking for the newest Wordle-style ritual: the site launched on September 1, 2026, so its archive holds only a handful of expeditions so far.
How to Use Raskobki
- Open the official website. On the first visit, a cookie banner appears — "Accept all" saves your progress between sessions, while "Essential only" keeps progress in memory until you close the tab.
- Open today's find. The landing page shows the current expedition card with its century label (for instance "XVI ВЕК"). Press "Начать раскопки" (Start excavations), then "Открыть карточку" (Open the card) to enter the dig.
- Solve the nested clues. Read the text with highlighted brackets. Type your answer to any open clue into the input field at the bottom and press "Проверить" (Check). A correct word slots into place and immediately becomes part of the clue one level out — so the paragraph keeps transforming as you dig.
- Use the dig-site tools when stuck. Click any bracket to request a hint ("Расчистить подсказку" — literally "brush off the clue," like cleaning an artifact), insert a ready fragment with "Вставить фрагмент," or skip a clue. Several branches can be open at once and solved in any order.
- Excavate to the end. A counter tracks fragments restored (today's puzzle: 20 fragments across 4 layers). When the last fragment is attributed, the full historical event and its source are revealed, with a timer showing your solving time.
- Come back tomorrow — or into the past. A new puzzle unlocks at 00:00 in your device's timezone. The Archive (Фонд выпусков) keeps previous expeditions playable, and the result screen exports an image-and-text summary for social media, including an Instagram Story format. Support is optional via Patreon or Boosty; the game itself stays free.
Is Raskobki Safe?
The privacy policy (effective September 1, 2026) is unusually specific for a small indie game:
- No accounts and no registration. There is nothing to sign up for; the operator is named publicly (Dmitrii Usenko) with a contact email for data questions.
- Progress stays in your browser. Solves, hints used, mistakes, and time are stored in first-party cookies on your own device — the policy states they contain no name, email, or other direct identifier. Without consent, progress lives only until the tab closes.
- Analytics is opt-in. Google Analytics 4 loads only if you separately agree, and then only receives anonymized gameplay events (starts, completions, scores, time, hint counts, restarts) — not your typed answers or the clue texts.
- Ads are a separate consent. Google AdSense is switched on only after its own opt-in, with a Google-certified CMP (IAB TCF) for users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland.
- Standard hosting logs. The site runs on Vercel, which processes technical request data such as IP addresses.
- You can erase everything. Footer buttons let you reconfigure cookies or "Delete my progress" at any time.
No site can be declared "100% safe" without an audit, but Raskobki collects essentially nothing unless you actively grant analytics or ads permission, and it follows a stricter consent flow than most games of its size.
Why Is Raskobki Popular?
Raskobki rides two currents at once. First, the daily one-at-a-time puzzle format popularized by Wordle: one new expedition per day, a timer, a fragment counter, and a one-click result image for social media — the full ritual. Second, it adds something the genre rarely offers: actual history. Because each puzzle ends in a documented event with a source, finishing a puzzle feels closer to reading a museum card than checking a streak, and the layered bracket mechanic produces "aha" moments that people like passing around.
It is also genuinely new — the game went live on September 1, 2026, which makes it a fresh discovery for the Russian-speaking puzzle community on Telegram and similar channels, where daily word games circulate heavily. The tongue-in-cheek archaeological framing (field journals, expeditions, brushing dirt off clues) gives it a personality beyond its mechanics. Beyond these traits, Raskobki appears to be gaining attention through direct sharing and word-of-mouth, although there is no clear public source showing where the trend originated.
Raskobki Not Working?
If the puzzle will not load or open, try these in order:
- Refresh the page — the game is a single-page app, and a reload restarts the current expedition cleanly.
- Open it in another browser with JavaScript enabled; the dig interface will not run without it.
- Disable ad blockers or strict privacy extensions temporarily. The cookie-consent window manages what the site may load; aggressive blockers can keep the page from finishing its setup.
- Check your device's date and timezone. Each puzzle opens at 00:00 by your device clock — a wrong timezone can make today's find look locked ("НЕ ВСКРЫТО").
- Accepted "essential only" and lost progress? That is by design: without cookie consent, progress survives only until the tab closes. Accept cookies to keep an expedition between visits.
- Check whether the Vercel deployment is still up. If the address itself stops resolving, the developer may be redeploying — try again later.
As of September 6, 2026, the original Raskobki website is online and playable.
Raskobki Alternatives
If you enjoy daily puzzle rituals, these are the closest well-known options:
- Wordle — the archetype of the genre: one five-letter word per day, streaks, and emoji-square sharing.
- Contexto — a daily game where you hunt a secret word guided by semantic-similarity rankings from an AI model.
- Timeguessr — a daily history game where you date and locate photographs, the closest match for Raskobki's history itch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the official Raskobki website?
The official website is https://raskobki.vercel.app/. The game runs entirely in the browser; there is no app-store version.
Is Raskobki free?
Yes. Every daily puzzle and the full archive are free. The site offers optional support through Patreon and Boosty, and ads load only with your separate consent.
Do I need an account to use Raskobki?
No. There are no accounts or registration forms. Progress is saved in your browser's own cookies if you allow them; otherwise it lasts only for the current tab session.
Who created Raskobki?
The project operator is Dmitrii Usenko, published with a contact email (d.usenko@hotmail.com) on the About and Privacy pages.
Is Raskobki still available?
Yes. The site was online and playable as of September 6, 2026. It launched on September 1, 2026, so the archive currently contains only the first days of expeditions — every past puzzle remains available.