Slide them back. Par says how few.
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A sliding-tile puzzle scored against par — the fewest moves the board can possibly be solved in, computed exactly rather than guessed. A daily 4x4 everyone shares, plus a seventeen-level ladder that grows from 3x3 to 5x5. Solving it is the easy part.
Tiles slide into the one empty space, exactly as they do on the plastic toy. The tiles directly above, below, left and right of that space are the only ones that can move — up to four at any moment — and touching one slides it in. Every other tile is boxed in until the space comes round to it, and the board dims those so you can tell at a glance which are live. One touch moves one tile one square, so your move count is simply the number of tiles you have slid.
Par is the fewest moves the board can possibly be solved in. It is not an estimate or a rule of thumb — for the daily board and for every 3x3 and 4x4 level it is computed by search and is provably optimal. You will almost never match it. That is the point.
The daily is a 4x4 and everyone gets the same board, changing at midnight UTC. Only your first run each day is ranked, so the leaderboard reflects a cold solve rather than the fifth attempt.
The level ladder runs seventeen boards, opening at a gentle 3x3 and finishing on 5x5. Each level unlocks the next, and your best move count is kept for each one. Finishing all seventeen posts a campaign score built from how close to par you came across the whole ladder.
If a board has you stuck, the Hint button rings the single best move available — genuinely the best, since it comes from the same search that works out par. Following hints from start to finish solves the board in exactly par, which is why each one costs 150 points. Hints are offered on the daily and on every 3x3 and 4x4 level; a 5x5 optimum cannot be computed, so no hint is offered there rather than a guess that might send you in circles.
The 5x5 levels show a target rather than a par. Proving the optimum for a 5x5 board is not computable — the position count runs past ten to the twenty-fifth — so that number is a reachable goal derived from a mathematical lower bound, and the game says so rather than pretending otherwise.
Slipframe is a free sliding-tile puzzle you play in your browser. Tiles slide into a single empty space and you push them back into order, but every board is scored against par — the fewest moves it can possibly be solved in. There is a daily 4x4 that everyone gets the same version of, and a seventeen-level ladder running from 3x3 up to 5x5.
Yes, Slipframe is completely free to play in your browser. No download, no signup, no paywall.
Par is the smallest number of moves that can possibly solve the board you are looking at. For the daily puzzle and for every 3x3 and 4x4 level it is not an estimate — it is computed by searching for a genuinely optimal solution, so it is a proven floor. Matching it is rare, and beating it is impossible by definition.
Because nobody can compute the true optimum for a 5x5 sliding puzzle. A 4x4 has about ten trillion positions, which is searchable with the right technique; a 5x5 has more than ten to the twenty-fifth, which is not searchable by any means. The number shown there is a reachable goal derived from a mathematical lower bound on the real answer, and the game calls it a target so it is not claiming something it cannot prove.
Exactly as you would the plastic version. The tiles directly above, below, left and right of the empty space are the only ones that can move — touch one and it slides in. Every other tile is boxed in until the space comes round to it, and the board dims those so you can tell which are live at a glance. One touch moves one tile one square. Getting a particular tile home means walking the empty space round to it, which is really the whole puzzle.
Press Hint and the best possible next move is ringed. It is genuinely the best move rather than a decent guess — it comes from the same exhaustive search that works out the board’s par, so following hints from start to finish solves the puzzle in exactly par. That is also why each one costs 150 points. Hints are available on the daily and on every 3x3 and 4x4 level. On 5x5 no hint is offered at all, because the optimum cannot be computed at that size and a guess could send you round in circles.
No. Exactly half of all possible tile arrangements in a sliding puzzle cannot be solved at all, which is a real problem for puzzles built by shuffling at random. Every board here is built by making legal moves backwards from the finished state, so an unsolvable board cannot be produced in the first place.
Yes, at midnight UTC, and everyone in the world gets the same board that day. Only your first run each day counts for the leaderboard, so the ranking reflects a first cold attempt rather than a fifth practice run.
Solve the top row first and then the left column, and refuse to disturb anything already finished — that shrinks a 4x4 into a 3x3 and then into something you can see all at once. The two end tiles of a row are the classic trap and need to be placed as a pair. Most of all, think about the route the empty gap takes rather than the tiles, because that route is what the move count actually measures.
Yes. It is built for touch first — the board scales to your screen and the tiles you can move are highlighted, so it plays comfortably with a single thumb in portrait. You can tap a tile or drag it into the space, whichever you prefer.