base
Each candidate hashes the word before it with a 64-bit little-endian counter appended: sha256( word ‖ counter ). dot opens the ring and is ground for again at its close.
ascii8
One byte per character. A match means the SHA-256 hash prefix spells the word in ASCII hex. Matching is case-insensitive.
targets
dot to arc to line to curve to plane to circle to square to star to spiral, and spiral ground back to dot — a ring, each shape found from the last.
counters
Winning counter values from 28 million to 17 trillion, within a 248 budget per search.