How to Play

The Goal

Slide tiles on the board to pair matching buddies. When two tiles of the same value collide they merge — a 2 + 2 becomes a 4, a 4 + 4 becomes an 8, and so on. Each value is a unique kawaii character, so every merge levels up your buddy. There is no win condition; the game ends when the board is full and no more moves are possible. See which buddy you can reach.

Controls

Swipe in any direction — left, right, up, or down — to slide all tiles that way. Every tile moves as far as it can before hitting a wall or another tile. After each successful move a new tile appears on an empty cell. Swipes shorter than 20 points are ignored so accidental taps won't trigger a move. Arrow keys also work when a hardware keyboard is connected.

Tile Themes

Every tile value is a distinct kawaii character, and you can swap the whole board's art in Settings → Tile Theme without starting a new game.

Kittens — a full cast of cat breeds, each with their own color, coat pattern, and ear style. The 2 is a tortoiseshell, the 4 a blue-gray Russian Blue, the 8 an orange tabby, the 16 a white longhair, the 32 a gold-spotted Bengal, and so on as you climb through Siamese, Calico, Sphynx, and beyond.

Puppies — floppy-eared dogs in a range of breeds and colors. The 2 is a soft white Maltese, the 4 a dark Border Collie, the 8 a honey-gold Golden Retriever, the 16 a tricolor Beagle, the 32 a deep mahogany Irish Setter. Every pup has the same goofy pink tongue.

Fruits & Veg — cheerful produce with kawaii faces and botanical toppers. The 2 is a green pear, the 4 an orange carrot, the 8 a rosy red apple, the 16 a bright green broccoli, the 32 a spotty strawberry. Higher values bring lemon, eggplant, corn, pumpkin, watermelon, and more.

Undersea — a reef's worth of kawaii sea life. The 2 is a goldfish, the 4 a clownfish, the 8 a blue fish, the 16 a sea turtle, the 32 a jellyfish. Higher values bring more of the reef as you dive deeper.

Cosmos — a stargazer's tour of the solar system. The 2 is an icy moon, the 4 a cratered gray moon, the 8 an orange planet, the 16 a dark moon, the 32 a golden ringed planet. Higher values bring you further out into the cosmos.

Blossoms — a garden that blooms bigger with every merge. The 2 is a daisy, the 4 a violet, the 8 a sunflower, the 16 a poppy, the 32 a peony. Higher values bring rarer blooms.

Scoring

Every time two tiles merge, their combined value is added to your score. Merging two 64 tiles scores 128 points. Chaining several merges in one swipe stacks up fast. Your all-time best score for each board size and game mode combination is shown in the BEST box — tap it to open your full game history.

Special Tiles

Occasionally the board spawns a special tile. These are rare and change the rules for that one interaction.

Square tile (ײ) — a crimson tile with a pulsing red border. When it slides into any normal tile from either side, the normal tile is squared. A Square meeting a 4 produces a 16. The Square tile is consumed in the process.

Halve tile (÷2) — a bright green tile with a pulsing yellow border. When it slides into any normal tile, that tile is halved (rounded down, minimum 1). A 128 becomes 64; a 7 becomes 3. The Halve tile is consumed.

Mutual cancel — if a Square tile and a Halve tile slide into each other, both are removed from the board with no score. They cancel out. Sometimes that's a crisis; sometimes exactly what you needed.

Wildcard — a rare rainbow-shimmer tile with a sparkle icon. It merges with any adjacent normal tile and doubles its value (Wildcard + 16 → 32). It does not interact with Square tiles, Halve tiles, other Wildcards, or Blockers. The Wildcard is consumed on merge.

All special tile types can be toggled in Settings → Gameplay. Square and Halve share one toggle; Wildcards have their own.

Bonus Tiles

On normal spawns there is a small chance of a higher-value tile appearing — marked with a gold border. Rarer values appear less often, and no bonus can exceed the current board maximum. Bonus tile spawns can be toggled off in Settings → Gameplay.

Straights

When four contiguous cells in a row or column hold values that form a strict doubling run in either direction — 2, 4, 8, 16 or 64, 32, 16, 8, starting at any value — they collapse into a single tile worth four times the largest value in the run, placed where the largest tile was.

The collapse fires on any swipe, even one that doesn't move anything else, so a board whose only legal play is a Straight is not game over. An animated outline highlights the four tiles before they shrink into the result cell.

In Sprint mode each Straight collapse also refunds 2 moves. Straights can be toggled off in Settings → Gameplay.

Blocker Tiles

Rare immovable obstacle tiles that spawn at one-in-300 odds, with at most two on the board at once. A Blocker occupies its cell for twelve moves. It does not slide or merge — instead it splits any row or column it sits in into two independent slide lanes, forcing you to work around it.

The tile displays a countdown (12 → 1). When three moves remain the border flashes orange as a warning. At zero the Blocker crumbles away with a particle burst, clearing the cell. Blockers can be toggled off in Settings → Gameplay.

Undo

Tap the undo button (the curved arrow) to revert to your previous board state — board layout, score, and merge markers all restore exactly. You start each game with three undo charges, shown as small dots next to the button.

Charges are spent one per undo. You earn one charge back (up to the cap of three) each time you merge a new milestone tile for the first time in a game. The button is always visible so you can see how many charges remain even when you can't use it.

Sprint Mode

A fixed-length challenge that ends after exactly 100 moves. A pill-shaped counter above the board tracks remaining moves and switches to orange when 20 moves remain. Each Straight collapse you trigger refunds 2 moves, so chasing Straights actively extends your run.

Sprint games are recorded and ranked separately from unlimited games so the two leaderboards don't mix.

Milestone Animations

When a merge produces a tile value you haven't reached before in that game, the new buddy lifts off the board, zooms to center screen, and bursts into a shower of color. The animation lasts about one second and the board stays live — swipe right through it. Each milestone value is celebrated only once per game. Hitting any milestone also refunds one undo charge.

New Game Starts

Every new-game trigger offers two starts:

Standard Start — the usual two tiles on an empty board.

Busy Board — roughly a quarter of the cells pre-filled with random low-value buddies so the game starts in an already-interesting mid-game state. Plenty of empties remain for a valid first move.

Settings

Tile Theme — Kittens, Puppies, Fruits & Veg, Undersea, Cosmos, or Blossoms. Active immediately, no new game needed.

Board Size — a slider from 3 to 8 sets the grid dimensions. Changing size requires starting a new game.

Game Mode — Normal, Start at 1 (tiles spawn as 1 instead of 2), or Sprint (100-move limit). Changing mode requires a new game.

Bonus Tiles — toggle bonus-value spawns on or off.

Special Tiles — toggle Square and Halve tile spawns on or off.

Wildcards — toggle Wildcard tile spawns on or off.

Straights — toggle the 4-tile doubling-run collapse mechanic on or off.

Blockers — toggle immovable obstacle tiles on or off.

Appearance — Light, Dark, or System to follow your device setting.

High Scores

Tap the BEST score box to open your game history. Records are grouped by board size and the exact combination of game-mode settings active when the game was played so each configuration ranks only against itself. Within a group, records are sorted by score, highest first.

Tap any record to see a thumbnail of the final board state along with per-game stats: move count, merge count, Straights collapsed, best single-move score, and duration. Use the Reset button (with confirmation) to clear all history.

Contact & Support

Questions or issues not covered here? Reach us at hello@typewrittencode.com — we read every message.