How to Play Color Sort

What it is

Color Sort is a calm logic puzzle made of glowing tubes and orbs. Each tube starts with a jumble of colors, and your job is to pour orbs back and forth until every tube holds just one color. Every level is generated by working backward from a solved board using legal pours, so each one can always be solved.

How to play (rules)

Each tube holds up to four orbs.
You can only pour the top orb onto an orb of the same color, or into an empty tube.
If several orbs of the same color are stacked on top, they pour together, as many as the target tube has room for.
A level is solved when every filled tube holds four orbs of one color.
Each level adds a color. Level 1 has three colors, level 2 has four, and it keeps climbing up to ten colors. Every level also gives you two empty tubes to work with.
Each level has a move limit, shown as “Moves 12 / 40”, for example. The limit gets tighter as the levels rise, and the counter turns pink when you’re close.
Run out of moves before sorting the tubes and the run ends with “Out of moves”.

Every orb also carries a small symbol, so you can tell colors apart even if some shades are hard for you to see.

Controls (desktop and mobile)

Touch or mouse: tap a tube to pick it up, then tap another tube to pour. Tap the same tube again to put it back down.
Undo and Restart level buttons sit at the bottom of the screen. Undo gives the move back, and Restart level resets the level and its move counter.
Keyboard: the arrow keys move the highlight (up and down switch rows when tubes sit in two rows), Space picks up and pours, U undoes and L restarts the level.
P pauses and F toggles full-screen.
M mutes or unmutes the sound.
Two toolbar buttons control sound and motion. Mute sound (M) turns the sound effects off, and its label changes to “Unmute sound (M)” so you can switch them back on. Reduce motion skips the little pop when orbs land in a tube, makes a picked tube lift instantly instead of gliding, turns off particle bursts, flashes and shake, and shortens the pause after a level is solved. It starts out matching your device’s reduce-motion setting. Each button has a short text label next to or under its icon. Your choices are remembered on your device and shared by every game in the Arcade.

Scoring and high scores

Color Sort measures progress in levels rather than points. Your score is the level you’ve reached, and your best level is saved in your browser. The global top-10 board ranks players by the highest level reached. When a run ends, the game-over screen shows your level next to your best and adds ”★ New best!” when you beat it. If your level would make the global top-10 board, the screen tells you where you’d rank and lets you enter a name and press Submit. If the board is full and you fall short, it shows the level you need to get in. When Color Sort is the daily challenge, the goal is to reach level 6 in one run.

Tips to beat your best

Keep an empty tube open for as long as you can. It’s your most valuable tool.
Look for tubes that are nearly sorted and finish them first to free up space.
Pour stacks of matching orbs together instead of splitting them.
Undo and Restart level are free to use, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Watch the move counter on later levels and plan a few pours ahead.