Your first round
- Use arrow keys, WASD, the direction buttons or a swipe to move all tiles.
- Choose a corner for your largest tile and use directions that keep it there when possible.
- Build a descending row or column beside that tile so smaller pairs can feed into larger ones.
- Before moving away from your corner, check where all large tiles will land and how you will restore the arrangement.
Worked example
One merge per tile
Before a new tile appears, sliding the row 2, 2, 4, empty to the left produces 4, 4, empty, empty. It does not make 8 immediately. A later left move can merge those two 4s.
Build your strategy
- Keep at least one escape direction available; a full board with no equal neighbors ends the run.
- Use the roomy Easy board to practice keeping a high-value edge in order.
- When two moves score the same, prefer the one that leaves large equal tiles easier to bring together.
Common mistakes
- Moving the largest tile away from its anchor for a low-value merge without checking the consequences.
- Expecting a newly formed tile to merge twice in a single swipe.
Try this next
On Easy, build a 256 tile while keeping it in one corner. Repeat on Medium before trying the compact Hard board.
Play 2048 ↗