About Sortopia
Sortopia is a free, browser-based sorting puzzle game. You move colored balls, liquid layers or shaped tokens between containers until every container holds just one color or shape. It runs instantly on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download.
Sortopia includes four puzzle modes — Color Sort, Water Sort, Shape Sort and Mystery Sort — plus a Daily Sort Challenge that gives every player the same new puzzle each day. There are 210 hand-tuned levels and unlimited practice puzzles.
Every puzzle in Sortopia is checked by a built-in solver before you see it, so every level is guaranteed to be solvable.
How to play Sortopia
The goal is simple: finish with every container holding a single color (or a single shape). Empty containers are your working space.
- Select a container. Tap or click a tube to pick up its top piece.
- Choose a destination. Tap another container to move the piece there.
- Follow the matching rule. A piece can only go into an empty container or onto a piece of the same color (or shape), and only if there is room.
- Complete sets. When a container holds all four pieces of one color, it seals with a lid and is finished.
- Solve the puzzle. When every container is sealed or empty, you win.
Example: a tube holds red, blue, blue (top). You can pour the blue onto another tube whose top is blue, or into an empty tube. You cannot place it on a tube whose top is red.
Made a mistake? Undo as many times as you like, Restart at any time, or ask for a Hint. Hints highlight one useful move from your current position without solving the whole puzzle for you.
Keyboard controls: press 1–9 or 0 to select containers 1–10, arrow keys to move focus, Enter or Space to select, U or Ctrl+Z to undo, H for a hint, R to restart, M to mute and Esc to pause.
Sortopia game modes
Color Sort
The classic ball-sorting puzzle. Move one ball at a time between glass tubes. A ball can go into an empty tube or onto a ball of the same color. Levels start with 3 colors and grow to 12, and later levels replace one empty tube with a shorter one.
Water Sort
Pour colored liquid between transparent tubes. All matching layers on top pour together as long as the destination has room, so a single pour can move several units. You can only pour into an empty tube or onto the same color.
Shape Sort
Group tokens by shape — circles, triangles, squares, stars, hexagons, diamonds, hearts, crescents and more. From the intermediate levels onward the tokens come in random colors, so you have to ignore color and focus on form.
Mystery Sort
Sortopia's signature mode adds special mechanics one at a time: hidden pieces (shown as “?”) that reveal themselves when they reach the top, short tubes that hold only two or three pieces, and locked vials that open after you complete a set number of tubes.
Daily Sort Challenge
One new puzzle every day, the same for every player. Each weekday features a different “Daily Discovery” twist — Zen Sunday, Mystery Monday, Tide Tuesday (water), Wildshape Wednesday (shapes), Lockbox Thursday, Full Spectrum Friday and Small Space Saturday. A new puzzle unlocks at midnight UTC.
Difficulty levels
| Tier | Colors or shapes | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 3–4 | Two empty containers, short puzzles, a quick tutorial for each mode. |
| Intermediate | 5–6 | More containers and longer chains of moves. |
| Advanced | 7–9 | Less free space: later levels swap an empty tube for a shorter one. |
| Expert | 10–12 | Very tight space, the hardest of several solver-checked layouts, and the full set of Mystery mechanics. |
Color Sort and Water Sort have 60 levels each; Shape Sort and Mystery Sort have 45 each. All levels are open from the start — pick the tier that suits you.
Play styles and features
- Zen Garden: a calm play style with no timer, no stars and softer sounds.
- Sortopia Rush: an optional timed style. The clock is based on the puzzle's benchmark length, and leftover seconds add bonus points.
- Perfect Sort: solve in par moves or fewer without hints to earn three stars.
- Combo celebration: chain productive moves to trigger combo feedback.
- Smart hints: one legal, useful move from your current position — or a note that you should undo if you've reached a dead end.
- Puzzle Passport: 20 milestone stamps, daily history and streaks, saved in your browser.
- Accessibility: full keyboard play, screen-reader announcements, optional color symbols for colorblind players and reduced-motion support.
How scoring works
Each puzzle has a par: the length of a solution found by Sortopia's solver. Stars are awarded like this:
- ★★★ — solved in par moves or fewer, with no hints.
- ★★ — solved within 150% of par (hints allowed).
- ★ — solved.
Points add up as 500 for completing the puzzle, up to 500 for efficiency (par ÷ your moves), 10 per second left in Rush, minus 100 per hint. Undone moves don't count against you. Zen Garden shows no stars or points.
Tips and strategies for sorting puzzles
- Treat empty containers as precious. Filling an empty tube with a single piece can leave you stuck. Use it when the move frees a whole color.
- Look a few moves ahead. Before moving, ask what the move uncovers and whether you'll have a place to put it.
- Build on the bottom. A container whose bottom pieces already match is a good place to gather that color.
- Group before you pour. In Water Sort, stacking matching layers first lets one pour move several units at once.
- Dig toward hidden pieces. In Mystery Sort, uncover “?” pieces early so you can plan with full information.
- Unlock early. Locked vials are extra space. Completing the required number of sets quickly makes the rest of the puzzle easier.
- Cut wasted moves. Moving a piece back and forth between two containers adds moves without progress. Undo instead to keep your count near par.
Privacy and saving progress
Sortopia does not ask for a name, email or account. Your settings, stars, streaks and Passport stamps are stored only in your browser's local storage on your device. They are not synced between devices, and clearing your browser data resets them.
Sortopia is designed for entertainment. We don't claim that it measurably improves memory, intelligence or any health condition.
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