A LITTLE HELP FINDING YOUR FLOW

How to Play Water Sort Puzzle

The rules fit in a few lines. The interesting part is finding the pour that makes your next move easier.

THE SIMPLE PART

How to Play Water Sort Puzzle

Choose where to pour

Tap a tube with water, then tap the destination. You can pour into an empty tube or onto a matching top color, as long as there is room.

Let the water move

A pour moves the largest block of matching top segments that fits. Water underneath a different color stays put. Each tube holds four segments.

Give each color a home

You win when every non-empty tube is full and contains one color. Need another try? Undo a pour or restart the same puzzle.

Read the full rules and worked examples

The rules

Select a tube that contains colored water.
Select a destination with room. It must be empty, or its top color must match the source’s top color.
The largest contiguous matching block pours, limited by the destination’s available space.
Finish with every non-empty tube holding four segments of one color.

You cannot pour through a different color or into a full tube. Selecting the same tube again cancels the selection. Undo reverses your most recent pour; Restart restores the original board.

What “maximum pour” means

Before

MCCCSC

After

MCSCCC

Two coral segments move into the two available spaces. C = coral, M = mint, S = sky. Stacks read from bottom to top.

Source, bottom → top: mint, coral, coral, coral
Destination, bottom → top: sky, coral

The destination has two free spaces. Two coral segments move, leaving mint and one coral segment in the source. The sky segment stays at the bottom of the destination.

You choose the tubes, not the amount. This matters when a matching destination has only one space: the rest of the source’s matching block stays in place.

FIND YOUR PACE

Difficulty Levels

Capacity stays at four segments. More colors mean more stacks to track, with two empty tubes on every starting board.

Easy

4 colors · 6 tubes

A compact board to learn the rhythm.

Medium

6 colors · 8 tubes

More connections, still a comfortable pause.

Hard

8 colors · 10 tubes

Look a couple of pours ahead.

Expert

10 colors · 12 tubes

Keep your spare space working.

Make your next move easier

Protect spare space and look at the color each pour uncovers. Read the strategy guide for examples of planning two or three moves ahead, consolidating stacks and knowing when to undo.

Legal and invalid moves

Legal: pour any top color into an empty tube, or onto the same top color if space remains.
Invalid: coral onto sky, pouring into a full tube, or selecting an empty source.
Blocked below: mint underneath coral cannot move until the coral above it is removed.

Hints, stars and scores

A hint highlights a source and a destination. It never pours automatically. The game first checks its known solution path, then searches for a route from your current board. If the bounded search cannot prove a route, it labels the suggestion as a possible move rather than a guaranteed solution step.

Your move counter counts the pours still in your run; Undo removes one move. The timer starts on your first pour and counts active time only. Best time and fewest moves are recorded separately for each difficulty.

Finish without hints for three stars. One or two hints earns two; more earns one. Stars have no time limit and do not claim an optimal solution.

Keyboard and accessible play

Use Tab to reach a tube, then Enter or Space to select it. Arrow keys move between neighboring tubes; Home and End jump to the first and last tube. Escape cancels a selection. Each tube’s accessible label lists its colors from bottom to top.

Turn on Symbols to add a distinct marker to every color. Reduced-motion preferences shorten the pour animation. Sound starts off, and haptics work only on browsers that support vibration.

Ready for another pour?

Start with Easy free play to learn the rhythm, then move up to more colors. The daily challenge always uses six colors and the same board for everyone on a given UTC date.

Play Water Sort