Color Sort Puzzle Tips: How to Solve Every Level

Sort puzzles start easy: a few tubes, a few colors and lots of room. Then the levels get tighter, colors hide under question marks and one wrong move can block everything. These tips work for liquid tubes, birds on branches, socks on racks and every other sorting puzzle, from the basics to the tricks that save a hard level.

How sort puzzles work

The board has several containers: tubes, glasses, branches, racks or pots. Each one holds a few items stacked on top of each other. Tap a container to pick up the item on top, then tap another container to drop it there.

The move only works if there is room and if the top item there is the same kind, or if the container is empty. You win when every container holds a single kind of item. Some puzzles move all the matching items on top together, and some make a full container pop and disappear.

Look before you tap

Before your first move, look at the top of every container. Two containers with the same color on top mean a safe, easy move. Also look for containers that are almost done, with just one wrong item sitting on top.

Then make a small plan: which container will hold which color? A tube that already has a color at the bottom is a good home for that color. Random moves fill the free space fast and leave you stuck.

Learn the shapes too. In good sort games, each item has its own color and its own sign, like a heart, a star or stripes. Checking the sign stops you from mixing up two similar colors.

The empty container is your best tool

An empty container is the most precious thing on the board. It is the only place where any item can go, so it lets you park an item for a moment and reach what is underneath.

Don't fill it with the first item you see. Use it when moving one item frees something useful, like the color you need to finish another tube. If you can drop an item onto a matching top instead, do that first and keep the empty one free.

Finish containers one at a time. A finished container is out of the way, and the room you cleared helps the next move. In the hardest levels you may get only one empty container, so this habit matters even more.

Hidden items and locked containers

In harder levels, some items hide under a question mark, or only the top item of each container is visible. A hidden item shows itself once the items above it are moved away.

Uncover hidden items early, while you still have room to move. Planning is much easier when you know what waits at the bottom. Some puzzles also have a locked container that opens after you finish a few others: finish the easy containers first to get that extra room sooner.

Undo, hints and extra room

Undo is your friend. In our sort games it is free, so you can test an idea and take it back if it blocks you. If no move is left, undo a few steps or add an extra container.

An extra container and a hint cost coins, and you can add only one extra container per level. Both count as help: finishing a level with no help earns three stars, and undo never takes a star away. So try undo first and keep the paid help for when you are really stuck. Our levels can always be solved, so being stuck just means another order of moves will work.

Our sort games

Gloop Lab is the classic: pour potions from flask to flask until each flask holds one kind. In Peep Peep, matching birds at the end of a branch fly off together, and in Paint Pots, three matching layers make the pot pop away. Crazy Socks adds a padlocked rack that opens once you finish two racks.