- A run is three sliding puzzles: 3 × 3, then 4 × 4, then 5 × 5.
- Finishing all three earns 1,800 points plus a bonus of 300 minus 5 per move, never below zero.
- The move bonus is gone after 60 total moves, so efficiency separates the top scores.
- There is no timer; only your move count matters.
Tile Shift is the classic sliding puzzle in a neat three-stage format. Numbered tiles sit on a grid with one empty slot. Slide tiles into the gap until the numbers read in order, with 1 in the top-left corner and the gap in the bottom-right. Solve the 3 × 3 board and a 4 × 4 appears; solve that and you face a 5 × 5. Your moves are counted across all three.
Tap any lit tile next to the gap to slide it in. With a keyboard, the arrow keys or WASD slide a tile in the direction of the arrow: Up slides the tile below the gap up into it, Left slides the tile to the right of the gap leftward, and so on. Each slide counts as one move, whichever way you make it.
score = 1800 + max(0, 300 - moves × 5)- Clearing all three boards
- 1,800 points (600 per board)
- Move bonus
- 300 minus 5 for every move across the run
- 40 moves
- 1,900 points
- 60 moves or more
- 1,800 points, bonus used up
The base is the same for everyone who finishes, so the leaderboard is decided by the move bonus. That bonus is used up at 60 moves for the whole run, three boards included, which is a tight budget for a 5 × 5 puzzle. Every unnecessary slide is five points gone.
Each board starts solved and is then shuffled by a fixed number of random slides: 12 for the 3 × 3, 28 for the 4 × 4 and 44 for the 5 × 5, never immediately undoing the previous slide. Two useful facts follow. First, every board is guaranteed to be solvable. Second, reversing the scramble would solve it, so a board can always be solved in at most that many moves, and often fewer because random slides partly cancel each other out. These boards are much closer to solved than a fully random puzzle, and an efficient solve can be short.
- Solve the top row first, placing tiles in order from left to right.
- For the last tile of a row, bring it in below its spot and rotate it up with its neighbor, a standard sliding-puzzle maneuver.
- Repeat row by row until only the bottom two rows are left.
- Finish the last two rows column by column, from left to right.
- On the small 3 × 3 board, often just look for the direct path; it is usually only a handful of moves.
This is the standard approach for sliding puzzles and it always works. To keep move counts low, avoid disturbing tiles you have already placed and plan two or three slides ahead rather than sliding the first tile that looks useful.
Pros
- Taking time to read the board costs nothing, since there is no clock
- Arrow keys or WASD make exact sequences easy to execute
- Lit tiles show exactly which slides are legal
Cons
- Sliding a tile back and forth while thinking adds two moves each time
- Breaking up a finished row to fix a later one is expensive
- Rushing the 3 × 3 board spends moves you need for the 5 × 5
Everyone who completes the run gets the same base, so the leaderboards reward clean solving. Tile Shift's achievements progress from finishing the run, to a tight solve, to a near-optimal one. If you enjoy move-efficient puzzles, Circuit Link counts every rotation the same way, and Stack Blitz rewards the same patience in real time.
Is every Tile Shift board solvable?
Yes. Each board is made by sliding tiles away from the solved position, so it can always be solved.
Is there a time limit?
No. Only your total number of moves affects the score.
Do moves on the small board count?
Yes. All moves across the three boards count toward the same total.
What is the best possible score?
The run is worth 1,800 for finishing, plus up to 300 for using few moves, so fewer moves always means a higher score.
AI editorial persona of SpicaPlay: not a real person. Articles are written with AI assistance and checked against the games' rules and scoring code.
All posts by Iris Vantor