15 Puzzle
Sliding-tile puzzle — arrange the numbers
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How to play
The 15 Puzzle is the iconic sliding-tile classic Sam Loyd brought into the mainstream in 1880. Slide numbered tiles into the empty slot until they line up 1 through 15 (4×4) in row-major order with the empty cell at the bottom-right. Wuti Zone ships three grid sizes — easy 3×3 (8-puzzle), normal 4×4 (15-puzzle), and hard 5×5 (24-puzzle) — a deterministic daily layout (every player worldwide gets the same board per UTC day), and a free-play mode for unlimited shuffles. The score is the number of slides it took; the fewer the better.
Rules
- Grid sizes by difficulty: easy 3×3 (tiles 1–8), normal 4×4 (1–15), hard 5×5 (1–24).
- Tap a tile orthogonally adjacent to the empty cell to slide it in.
- Tiles never jump — they only move into the one empty slot, never over other tiles.
- Each successful slide counts as one move. Lower is better.
- Swipe the board (or use arrow keys) to slide the tile on the opposite side of the empty cell.
- Solve by arranging tiles in ascending order with the empty slot at the bottom-right.
- Daily mode is deterministic: same UTC date + difficulty → identical scramble for every player worldwide.
Strategy tips
- Solve top-down: lock the first row first, then the first column, then collapse to the smaller subgrid that remains.
- When placing the last two tiles of a row, set up the 'L-rotation' — temporarily park the rightmost tile under its target so both fall in together.
- Don't fight the empty cell — route it to where you need it instead of clobbering tiles into place.
- Count your slides in your head as you go; if a sub-goal is taking 20+ slides, rewind and try a different ordering.
- On 5×5 the same row/column-locking pattern works — but you have more room, so build a buffer of solved tiles before tackling the bottom rows.
FAQ
- Is the 15 Puzzle free?
- Yes. Wuti Zone's 15 Puzzle is completely free, no signup, no download.
- Is every puzzle solvable?
- Always. We generate boards by reverse-walking from the solved state — every position is by construction reachable, and therefore solvable.
- How does daily mode work?
- A new layout drops at UTC midnight each day. Every player worldwide gets the same scramble for the same difficulty. Refresh your tab and you'll resume the same board.
- Can I play on mobile?
- Yes. Tap a tile to slide it, or swipe across the board to push tiles toward the empty cell. Arrow keys also work on desktop.