How to play Tiltwood: rules and stopper strategy
Everything you need to play Tiltwood, plus tips to get a better score.
How to play
- Get every marble into the hole of its colour in as few turns as possible.
- You never move the marbles. Turn the whole board a quarter turn with ↺ or ↻ (or swipe in an arc around it; on a computer, use the ← and → keys).
- After every turn, gravity pulls towards the bottom of the screen: marbles and grey boxes fall in a straight line until they hit the frame, a wall or another piece.
- A marble that rolls over the hole of its own colour drops in and stays there, out of the way. It rolls over holes of other colours as if they were floor. Boxes never go into holes.
- Each colour has its own symbol (▲ red, ◆ blue, ★ yellow), on the marble and on its hole.
- Par is the fewest turns possible. Match par for ⭐⭐⭐, par + 1 or + 2 for ⭐⭐, anything more for ⭐.
- Undo (Z on a keyboard) and start over are free: only the turns on your final path count.
- A marble that is home stays there and no longer blocks anything: other pieces roll over its hole.
- Marbles and boxes stop against each other, so any piece can be a stopper. Every loose piece falls on every turn, all at once.
- The arrow under the maze shows which way is down; you can hide it in Settings, along with the sound and vibration.
- The counter shows your turns / par, and the chips at the top get a ✓ as each marble drops in.
- You can't lose: when the last marble drops in at par, the day ends by itself; with more turns a Finish button appears: hand it in, or undo and keep trying. Your shared result shows the stars, your turns and par, never the moves.
- Monday: 5×5, one marble. Tuesday: 6×6, two marbles. Wednesday: a grey box joins in. Thursday: 7×7. Friday: three marbles. Saturday and Sunday: 8×8 with two boxes; Sunday has the highest par.
Strategy: stoppers
A falling marble only stops against something. To drop it into a hole, you first need it in the hole's row or column, and the only way to park it there is against a stopper: the frame, a wall, a box or another marble.
So read the board backwards: from the hole, look along its row and column for a stopper just beyond it, or for a place where a marble could stop in line with it. That is where the marble has to be one turn before it drops in.
Boxes are the flexible stoppers: they fall too. Sometimes you move a box first so that it waits in the right spot, then bring the marble against it.
Watch the other marbles: a marble resting under another one is a stopper for it, and a marble that has already dropped into its hole no longer blocks anything.
Two turns the same way flip the board upside down; a left then a right brings it back, but every piece has moved on the way. Spinning in one direction never solves a puzzle, so plan each turn.
Stuck? Undo is free. Try a turn, watch where everything lands, and step back.