Synchronize

What is Synchronize

Synchronize is played on four rows by four columns, and you never move a single block. Every swipe pulls the whole board — every loose block slides as far as it can go in that direction, all at the same time. Blocks come in pairs of the same colour, up to seven pairs on a full board, and when two of a colour end up against each other they fuse into a core: a hollow ring of that colour, welded to its square.

The core is the twist. It is finished work and it is also a wall. It no longer slides, and it stops everything behind it, cutting the row or column into two shorter lanes. So every pair you close makes the board a little more crowded and a little less forgiving, and the last pair is always the hard one. Clear every loose block before the move counter empties and the level is done; the allowance is eight moves plus two for every pair, which sounds generous until the third core lands in the wrong square.

How to play

1. Swipe or press an arrow key to pull the whole board in that direction. On a phone, swipe anywhere on the board; on a computer use the arrow keys. Every loose block moves; the cores stay where they are.
2. Two blocks of the same colour that come to rest against each other fuse into a core and leave the board. A core is permanent: it never slides again and nothing slides through it, so it splits the lane it sits in.
3. The level is won when no loose blocks remain, and lost when the move counter reaches zero. A win pays 500 plus fifty for every move you had left; each fusion along the way pays 100.
4. Restart Level costs 100 points and deals the same level again; Retry after a loss costs 500. The Daily Challenge is the same ten levels for everyone in the world and ends after level ten; Endless keeps going until you run out of moves.

Strategies that work

• Decide where a core is going to land before you swipe, not after. A core in the middle of the board cuts two lanes at once; a core against an edge only cuts one, and against a corner it barely gets in the way.
• Two blocks of a colour in the same row will fuse the moment you swipe along that row — that is the easy half. The pairs that cost you moves are the ones split across rows and columns, so bring those together first, while the board is still empty enough to slide freely.
• The move allowance is eight plus two per pair: twelve moves for the two pairs of level 1, twenty-two for the seven pairs of level 15 and beyond. Two moves per pair is exactly what a well-placed pair costs, so every wasted swipe comes straight out of the last pair's budget.
• A swipe that changes nothing does not count as a move, so pushing against a wall to see what happens is free. Use it to check what is blocked before spending a real move.
• Restarting costs 100 and retrying after a loss costs 500, so when a level goes wrong early it is cheaper to restart at once than to fight it to the last move and lose.

A little history

Sliding-block puzzles have a long and slightly infamous history: Sam Loyd claimed to have invented the 15 puzzle in the 1870s and offered a prize for an arrangement that was mathematically impossible, which did not stop half of America from trying. What makes them hard is not the sliding but the interference — pieces you have already placed are in the way of the pieces you have not. Synchronize takes that idea and makes it literal. Here the finished work is the obstacle: every pair you complete becomes a wall welded to the board, so the puzzle you are solving at move ten is not the puzzle you were given at move one. You are not just clearing the board, you are choosing where to build the maze that you will have to work around.

Frequently asked questions