Power Chain — Merge Powers of Two Under Rotating Gravity

What is Power Chain — Merge Powers of Two Under Rotating Gravity

Power Chain is a six-by-six grid holding about twenty numbered tiles, all of them powers of two. Press a tile and drag through its neighbours — sideways, up, down or diagonally — for as long as they carry the same number. Let go and the whole chain collapses into a single tile of double the value, sitting on the last square you touched. A pink star is a wildcard: it matches whatever number the chain started with, so it can bridge two fours that would otherwise never meet. Every merge is followed by a fall and one fresh tile sliding in at the intake edge.

The twist is the arrow in the fourth card at the top. Gravity points down for forty-five seconds, then turns right, then up, then left, and keeps cycling. When it turns, the whole board re-packs against the new wall, two extra tiles drop in, and any pattern you were building is rearranged. The countdown is always on screen and the card flashes red for the last ten seconds. Points come from the value you create, the length of the chain and a combo that climbs while merges stay less than three seconds apart. The game ends when no two neighbours match.

How to play

1. Press a numbered tile and drag across touching tiles with the same number; diagonal steps count, and a badge previews the tile you are about to create.
2. Release to merge: the chain becomes one tile of double the value, on the last square you crossed, and the board then falls in the current direction.
3. A star matches any value, so start on a number and pass through it; starting on the star itself gives you only a plain two.
4. Watch the gravity card: when its countdown hits zero the direction rotates, the board re-packs against a new wall and two more tiles arrive.

Strategies that work

• Chain length never raises the value: eight twos linked together still make a four, because the result is double the first tile. Length only buys points — value times length, plus ten for each tile past the second, times the combo. Climb the ladder with pairs; save long chains for cashing in.
• The combo matters more than any clever chain. It gains one for every merge made within three seconds of the last, up to ten. Ten hurried pairs at a rising multiplier beat ten unhurried ones easily, so when the window is closing take the merge you already see.
• You choose where the new tile lands: the last square of the chain. Drag towards a tile that already holds the value you are creating, and gravity usually drops the result beside it, handing you the next merge at once and keeping the three-second window open.
• Long chains thin the board. A pair removes two tiles and returns one, and the game adds one after every merge, so the count holds; a five-chain leaves you three lighter. Keep a star in reserve when the grid empties, because a wildcard on the board guarantees a legal move.
• Read the countdown before committing. With thirty seconds left it pays to stack a long chain of eights along the floor. With eight seconds left that column is about to become a row: cash in what you built, take the ordinary pair, and rebuild once the new direction settles.

A little history

Power Chain was written for this site and has no older version behind it. It sits between two familiar ideas: path games, where you drag through matching neighbours until they collapse together, and the doubling ladder of powers of two, running here from 2 to 2048 — two to the eleventh. Since a merge doubles the first tile of the chain and nothing else, a single 2048 needs 1024 twos and at least 1023 merges, so nobody reaches it by accident. The rotating gravity belongs to neither family: a board that re-packs against a different wall every forty-five seconds turns a calm merging puzzle into a question of timing.

Frequently asked questions