How to play Color Sort
- Press Start. Level 1 points at the first jar to tap and walks you through your first pour.
- Tap a jar. The matching sweets on its top lift up out of the glass.
- Tap another jar to pour them in. It must be empty or have the same sweet on top, and only as many sweets as fit will move.
- Fill a jar with four of one kind to put a lid on it. Lid every jar to finish the level.
- Watch the move counter. Finish within the target shown under the stars for three stars, and before the moves run out to pass the level.
About Color Sort
This color sort puzzle is set behind the counter of a little sweet shop. The jars on the shelves have been filled in a hurry: hearts, stars, drops and moons are all mixed up. Tap a jar to lift the sweets on its top, then tap another jar to pour them in. A sweet can only land on an empty jar or on a sweet of the same kind, and a jar holds four. When a jar is full of one kind it gets a lid and a burst of sugar, and closing jars on back-to-back moves starts a sugar rush that multiplies your points. Every sweet has its own shape as well as its own color, so the game reads clearly for color-blind players too. Each of the 100 levels was solved by a computer before it shipped, so none is a dead end, and each has a move limit with star targets based on that solution. From chapter three some sweets arrive wrapped, and you only see what is inside once they reach the top of a jar.
Controls
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tap or click a jar | Lift its top sweets, or pour the lifted sweets into it |
| Arrow keys | Move the outline between jars |
| Enter or Space | Lift or pour at the outlined jar |
| Number keys | Pick a jar directly, 1 for the first jar |
| U or Backspace | Undo the last pour (three per level) |
| H or the bulb button | Show a good next pour (3 per level) |
| P and R | Pause and restart the level |
| E or the jar button | Add one empty jar (at most two stars) |
Tips and strategy
- Keep one jar empty for as long as you can. An empty jar is the only place any sweet can go, and giving it up early is the most common way to get stuck.
- Pour whole runs. If two drops sit on top of a jar, move them together into a jar with a drop on top rather than splitting them up.
- Read each jar from the top down before you pour. The sweet underneath is the one you will be dealing with next, so plan where it will go.
- Close jars in a row for a sugar rush. Finishing a jar within two moves of the last one raises the multiplier, so line up a couple of nearly full jars.
- Wrapped sweets are surprises, not traps. Uncover them early by clearing the sweets above them, so you can plan with the whole board in view.
- Save your undos for real mistakes. You get three per level, and they give back the move too, so one well-timed undo can still earn three stars.
Questions and answers
Is every level solvable?
Yes. Each level was checked by a solver before it went into the game, and the star targets come from the number of moves that solver needed, plus a little room.
How many levels are there?
One hundred, in five chapters: Corner shop, Gumdrop lane, Taffy pier, Cocoa cellar and Midnight sweets. Levels grow from two kinds of sweet to ten, and wrapped sweets appear from chapter three.
What happens if I get stuck?
If no pour is possible the game tells you and points at the undo button. With no undos left the level ends, and you can try it again straight away with the same jars.
Can I play if I am color-blind?
Yes. Every kind of sweet has a different shape, such as a heart, a star or a moon, so you never need to tell colors apart to sort them.
What are the daily jars?
A new shelf of eight kinds of sweet every day, the same for every player. Your score counts lidded jars, sugar rush combos and the moves you have left at the end.
Do I need to sign up or download anything?
No. Color Sort runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, and your stars and settings are saved on your device.
What does the jar button do?
Once per level it adds an empty jar to the shelf, which can rescue a crowded board. A level finished with the extra jar earns at most two stars.
