Number Merge Strategy: Reach 2048

How a move works

Tiles slide towards the side you chose, closing every gap. Along each row (or column), the tiles nearest the wall join first: a row of 2, 2, 2 slid left becomes 4, 2, not 2, 4. A tile joins only once per move, so 4, 4, 8 slid left becomes 8, 8 and not 16; you need a second move for that. A move that changes nothing does not count and brings no new tile.

The corner strategy

The single most useful habit is to choose one corner and keep your biggest tile in it for the whole game. Say you choose the bottom left. Then most of your moves are left and down, some are right, and up is the move you avoid. With the big tile pinned in its corner, new small tiles appear away from it, and merges flow towards it instead of scattering it across the board.

• Use three directions. Down, left and right are your moves; up only when nothing else is possible.
• Fill the bottom row first. A full bottom row cannot be disturbed by a right move, which makes right safe to use.
• Do not chase small joins. A move that pulls the big tile out of its corner to join two 2s is almost never worth it.

Build a chain along the edge

The best boards look like a snake of falling numbers: 256, 128, 64 and 32 along the bottom row, then 16 and 8 turning up into the row above. Each tile is half the one before it. When a new small tile joins the end of the chain, one move can join it all the way back to the corner, and those cascades are where the big scores come from.

When things go wrong

Sooner or later a 2 lands in the corner you were saving. Do not panic and do not start moving in all four directions. Instead:

1. Look for the move that fills the gap again. Often a left or down slide pushes a small tile into the corner and the big tile right beside it; work the small one up the chain until the corner tile can move back.
2. Keep the board loose. Many empty squares mean many options. A move that joins several pairs at once is usually better than one that makes the single biggest tile.
3. Think one tile ahead. Before each move, ask where the empty squares will be afterwards, since that is where the new tile can drop.

Daily game and free play

In the daily challenge every player gets the same new tiles: each drop is drawn from the day's seed and its own number, so the first drop, the second drop and so on are the same value in the same favourite square for everyone (if that square is taken, the drop moves to the next one on its list). Your moves still decide how the game goes, so two players rarely end the same way. Free play gives a new random game every time.

Scoring and records

Every join adds the new tile's value to your score, so the score grows faster as your tiles grow. Reaching 2048 brings a small celebration, and play goes on: 4096 is possible with a careful corner strategy and a little luck. Your best scores for each mode, with their dates, are kept in your browser on this device; Number Merge sends nothing to our server and is not part of the daily leaderboards.

Habits that help

• Slow down near the end. Most games are lost in the last ten moves, when one careless slide fills the board.
• Count the empties. With fewer than three empty squares, look for any join before making a plain slide.
• Practise the cascade. Once you can see a chain of halves forming, the 2048 tile is a matter of patience.