Water Sort
Shortcuts: Ctrl+P pause · Ctrl+M sound · Enter play again
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Resets every Monday (UTC).
About Water Sort
Water Sort is a tidy colour puzzle with glass tubes. Each tube holds layers of coloured liquid, up to four layers deep, and your goal is to pour them around until every tube contains only one colour. It sounds simple, but a careless pour can trap a colour at the bottom, so you need to think before every move.
It suits patient, relaxed players, with a full session lasting three to ten minutes. There are six levels, and each one adds more colours and eventually an extra empty tube. A good run is solving each level in few moves with no undos, because both of those add up in your score.
How to play Water Sort
- Tap a tube to select it. Its top colour is what will be poured.
- Tap another tube. The pour works if the target has room and its top colour matches, or if it is empty.
- If several layers of the same colour sit on top, they all pour together as long as there is space.
- A tube that holds four of one colour is complete and gets a check mark.
- Finish a level by making every tube a single colour, then move on to the next of six levels.
Controls
| Keyboard and mouse | Click a tube to pick it up, then click another tube to pour into it. You can also press the number keys 1 to 9 to choose tubes, and press Z to undo. |
|---|---|
| Phone and tablet | Tap a tube to lift it, then tap the tube you want to pour into. Use the Undo and Restart level buttons below the board. |
Scoring
Each solved level gives 300 plus 100 times the level number, minus 4 for every move and 20 for every undo, with a minimum of 50. Fewer moves mean more points. If you run out of legal moves, the game ends and you get a small bonus of 20 for each tube you completed.
Tips and strategy
- Before pouring, look at the bottom colours. Getting a colour out from under others is the real problem, so free those first.
- Keep an empty tube free as long as possible. It is the one tool that lets you rearrange layers without making things worse.
- Do not pour a single layer into another tube when it just moves the problem. Each move costs 4 points, so aim for pours that make progress.
- Use Undo when you spot a mistake, but remember that it costs 20 points. Thinking for a moment first is cheaper.
- Restart level if the board is clearly stuck. It reshuffles the level, which can be better than spending many moves on a bad position.
Water Sort FAQ
▸Why can I not pour into some tubes?
A pour is only allowed if the target tube has space and its top colour matches, or if it is empty. The game also blocks moving a single-colour tube into an empty tube, since that gains nothing.
▸Can the game get stuck?
Yes. If no legal pour is left, the game ends with a message that no moves are left. Using Undo carefully and keeping an empty tube available helps you avoid this.
▸How many levels are there?
There are six. Level one has five colours and two empty tubes, and later levels add more colours, up to nine, plus a third empty tube from level four.
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