The board
The board is a square of 25 tiles, five across and five down. Every tile shows a number and a colour that goes with it: cream for 1, sun yellow for 2, amber for 3, orange for 4, coral for 5, rose for 6, violet for 7, sky blue for 8 and glowing gold with a little crown for 9. The board is always full; whenever tiles clear, new ones fall in to fill the gaps.
Making a merge
- Find two or more tiles with the same number that touch along an edge. Corners touching diagonally do not count.
- Tap any tile in that cluster. The whole cluster is one group, however long or bent its shape is.
- The tile you tapped goes up by one. Every other tile of the group disappears.
- Tiles above the gaps slide straight down, and new tiles drop into the top of each column.
Tapping a tile with no matching neighbour does nothing except a small shake, so a mis-tap never costs you a move. After about six seconds without a tap, the biggest available group starts to glow as a hint.
Where the new tile lands
The merged tile stays exactly where you tapped, then falls with its column if spaces open below it. That one detail is most of the strategy. Tapping the bottom of a vertical pair keeps the new tile low; tapping the top one leaves it higher, where falling tiles will soon land on top of it.
How points are counted
One merge scores new number × tiles in the group × 10. A pair of 4s that becomes a 5 is 5 × 2 × 10 = 100 points; a cluster of five 4s becomes a 5 for 5 × 5 × 10 = 250. Your first 9 in a game adds a one-time crown bonus of 900 points on top of that merge.
| Group | Becomes | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 2 tiles of 2 | 3 | 60 |
| 3 tiles of 4 | 5 | 150 |
| 5 tiles of 5 | 6 | 300 |
| 2 tiles of 7 | 8 | 160 |
| 3 tiles of 9 | 10 | 300 |
Which numbers fall in
New tiles are drawn at random from 1 up to a ceiling, and smaller numbers come more often. The ceiling starts at 3 and rises with your highest tile: it is always two below your top tile, never lower than 3 and never higher than 6. So once you hold a 7, new tiles can be anything from 1 to 5; once you hold an 8 or more, from 1 to 6. A 7, 8 or 9 is never handed to you. You build them.
Undo and Shuffle
Every game comes with 3 Undos and 2 Shuffles. Undo takes back your most recent merge, score included; it works one step at a time, so you cannot undo twice in a row. Shuffle moves every number on the board to a new place and always leaves at least one group to play. A shuffle cannot be undone.
When a game ends
The game ends when no two touching tiles match. If you still hold a Shuffle, the board pauses and offers it instead. With no Shuffles left, the board locks and shows your final score. An Undo can still rescue a locked board if you have one left. New game starts a fresh board at any time.
Ranks
Your best tile ever made unlocks ranks on the home page. They never reset when a game ends.
| Tile | Colour | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Amber | Starter |
| 4 | Orange | Spark |
| 5 | Coral | Bronze |
| 6 | Rose | Silver |
| 7 | Violet | Gold |
| 8 | Sky | Platinum |
| 9 | Gold | 9K Crown |
Controls and saving
- Tap or click a tile to merge. On a keyboard, move with Tab and press Enter or Space.
- The speaker button switches sound effects on or off; phones that support it give a short buzz on each merge.
- Your board, score, helpers left, best score and ranks save in this browser after every move.
Points are only a score. They have no cash value and nothing on 9K Club can be bought with them. Ready to use the rules? Go back to the 9K Merge board, or read the merge tips first.