How to beat a hard board

#Before your first move

Peach

Look first, move second

Most hard boards are lost in the first three moves, not the last three. Opening a board costs nothing, and leaving before your first move is always free, so take a full look before you touch anything.

1. 1Read every goal in the order panel: which colours, how many, and whether there are crates, locks or moss to clear. A board in stages opens new gates when the first goals are done.
2. 2Count your moves against the goals. Twenty moves for twenty red bricks means one-at-a-time slides will not be enough: you need lines.
3. 3Find the gates. Note each gate’s colour and width, and whether it is iced, counted or sealed until a later stage.
4. 4Spot what is stuck: bricks under a lid, in ice or behind a lock cannot move yet. Tap any blocker or lid for a one-line reminder of how it opens.
5. 5Check if bricks fall. If they do, new bricks may drop in, and every match changes what is above it.

#Slides or matches: spend each move where it counts most

A gate goal such as “send 12 red home” counts both the red bricks you slide out through the red gate and the red bricks you clear in lines. That changes the arithmetic:

#Free the blockers and open the gates

Blockers do not all open the same way. Making the right kind of line is what saves moves:

Every blocker, lid and gate is described in full in The blockers encyclopedia.

Iced, counted and staged gates

• Iced gate: thaws a little each time any brick goes home through any gate, and when pieces in front of it clear. Send other colours home early to open it sooner.
• Counted gate: takes only so many bricks, then shuts for good. Do not waste its places on bricks a match could clear instead.
• Staged gate: stays sealed until the second stage of goals begins. Do not spend moves lining up bricks for it in stage one.

#Falling boards: work low

On boards where bricks fall, a match near the bottom moves everything above it, and the fall can line up another match on its own: a cascade, which costs no extra move. A match near the top moves almost nothing. So, other things equal, work from the bottom up.

• On falling boards you can slide sideways into a gap, or straight out through a gate. Use slides to set up lines a fall will complete.
• Where new bricks drop in, the top of the board is unknown; the bottom is what you can plan.
• On Corner Pieces and Quiet Puzzle boards, bricks fall but no new ones arrive, so every brick is all you will get. Count the bricks of each goal colour before you start.

#Specials: make them, then keep them for a combo

A special fired alone is good; two swapped together are far better. If two specials sit close, try to bring them side by side and swap them into each other rather than tapping each one:

#Free boosters and the free undo

Every attempt comes with one free Hint, one free Rocket and one free UFO. They cannot be saved for later, so a board where you never touched them is a board you played with one hand behind your back.

Hint

Shows and says the best move. Use it early on an unfamiliar board to learn what the board wants, not only when you are stuck.

Rocket

Turns a plain brick into a line blaster that fires along its row. Choose a row with several goal bricks or blockers in it, ideally low on a falling board.

UFO

Beams one layer off a piece: a crate layer, ice, a lock, moss or a brick. Best on the single blocker that keeps a goal brick or a gate lane shut.

Undo as a way to look ahead

• The first undo on every board is free. Use it as a free look: try the move you are unsure about, and if it goes badly, take it back.
• Undo puts the board back exactly as it was before your move, and gives the move back.
• After the free one, undos come from a tank of up to five that refills by one every 25 minutes. Keep them for the end of a board, where one wasted move is the difference.
• Undo is cheaper than Restart. Restarting after a move ends the attempt and costs a life; an undo never does.

#When to play on, and trying again

The out-of-moves screen shows exactly what is left. Read it before you choose. Playing on keeps this attempt alive, so it never costs a life; giving up uses one, and a life comes back in 30 minutes.

• The price climbs 300 → 500 → 900 within one attempt and resets with every new attempt.
• On a board you have tried several times, each play-on gives one extra move for every failed attempt after the third, up to +15.
• The current Brick Pass adds three free moves at the out-of-moves screen.
• Nothing paid is offered before level 6.

Full details in Out of moves.

Trying again: the helping hand

• After a loss, Level failed shows how close you came. Use what you saw: which goal ran out, which blocker took too long.
• From your sixth attempt at the same board, the game gives you 3 extra moves before you start: “A helping hand: 3 extra moves this try”. Once a day per board, free.
• From level 6, you can start the next try with a head start for 800 coins: a Rocket on the board and a free UFO.
• Still stuck? Look the level up in Help with a level: other players may have left a nudge.

#What to expect from Hard, Super Hard and Boss

Expect to need more than one attempt on Super Hard and Boss boards: that is how they are tuned, not a sign you are playing badly. Every board in the game has been cleared by a solver before release, so every one can be won.

#Strategy with VoiceOver

• Start with the Board summary at the top: level, stage, goals and moves left. Double-tap it to hear the whole board with a hint.
• Use the rotors instead of swiping cell by cell. Goals finds the pieces your goals want; Pieces that can match finds every move that clears now; Blockers and Gates show what is in the way and where bricks can leave.
• Listen to a piece’s actions. Slides say how far they go and whether they leave through a gate, and working swaps come first, so the first few actions are often the plan.
• Set Announcement detail to Full on hard boards to hear every goal’s count after every move, so you never lose track.
• The two-finger double tap is a free hint that never uses a Hint booster. Ask as often as you like.
• Turn on Hold to confirm swaps if a slip could play a move you did not mean.

#The hard-board checklist