Games / Puzzle Games / Lily Stacks / Guide
Lily Stacks
Lily Stacks is a calm stack sort puzzle on a golden-hour pond. You set stacks of petals on lily pads, matching petals hop across by themselves, and ten of one color open into a lotus.
Quick answers
Does Lily Stacks work on my phone?
Yes. Lily Stacks works with touch on phones and tablets, and with a mouse or keyboard on a computer. It runs in the browser you already have, so there is no app to download.
Do I need an account to play Lily Stacks?
No. Just open it and play, with no sign-up. If you like, a free account (username only, no email, for players 13 and older) puts your scores on the leaderboards and backs up your progress so it follows you to any device.
Is there a daily challenge in Lily Stacks?
Yes. Lily Stacks has a new daily challenge every day, the same one for every player, with its own daily leaderboard. Find it alongside the others on our daily challenges page.
Is Lily Stacks OK for kids?
Yes, players of any age can enjoy it. There is no chat and no way to message other players, and nobody needs an account to play. Accounts are for players 13 and older, so younger players just play and their progress stays on their device. For ages 4 to 11 we also have learning games in their own kids area, with no ads, no accounts and no tracking.
What is Lily Stacks?
Stack sort puzzles are about placement. You never pour or swap anything yourself. You choose where each new stack goes, and the board does the sorting: when two neighbouring stacks show the same color on top, those petals slide together on their own. Pick the right pad and one move can set off a whole chain of hops.
Our version is set on a pond at sunset. The board is a honeycomb of lily pads, the pieces are stacks of soft petals, and every color has its own petal shape, so you can tell them apart even without color. Lily Stacks is free, plays in your browser on phone, tablet or computer, and needs no download or account.
Stack sort is one kind of sort puzzle. Our sort puzzle games page covers pour sort and color gates too.
How to play
- Three petal stacks wait on the bank at the bottom of the screen (on the side when your phone is sideways). Each one has 2 to 6 petals in 1 to 3 colors.
- Drag a stack onto any empty lily pad, or tap the stack and then tap the pad.
- If a neighbouring stack has the same color on top, the petals hop across one by one, gathering where that color run ends up longest.
- When petals leave a stack, the color underneath is uncovered and may match another neighbour, so the hopping keeps going. That's a chain.
- A stack with 10 petals of one color on top opens into a lotus. The lotus floats off to your goal and whatever was underneath stays on the pad.
- Use all three stacks and three new ones arrive.
Every pond has a goal shown at the top: open a number of lotuses, open lotuses of certain colors, or clear the moss from the rocks. Reach it and the pond is done. If every pad is full and there's no room for the stacks on the bank, you're stuck. That's when Put back, a helper or a free restart comes in.
The little number on each stack is how many petals of its top color are stacked together. When it turns gold you're close to ten.
Stars
Stars come from how much room is left when you reach the goal. The row under the goal shows how many pads are free right now and how many stars that would earn.
| Stars | Free pads at the goal |
|---|---|
| 3 | 5 or more (a quarter of the pads on ponds bigger than 20 pads) |
| 2 | 2 or more (a tenth on the big ponds) |
| 1 | Any finish |
Your total stars are your score on the all-time Stars leaderboard.
The five ponds
There are 300 levels. A new idea shows up about every ten levels, always with a gentle level to meet it first. About one level in five is labelled Tricky, and the one after it is a breather.
- Lotus Pond (levels 1 to 40): the basics, then three-color stacks from level 11, frogs from level 22 and mossy rocks from level 31. A frog sits on a pad and hops to a new one after every move, so that pad is blocked for now.
- Waterfall Pool (41 to 100): current pads with flowing arrows. A stack set on one drifts one pad downstream after its hops, if that pad is free. Color goals arrive at level 51.
- Moon Pond (101 to 160): face-down gray petals. They turn over when a lotus opens right next to them, which often starts a new chain.
- Rain Garden (161 to 230): dragonfly pads. Tap a stack sitting on one, then tap a free pad, and the dragonfly carries it there. Each dragonfly helps once.
- Lantern Lake (231 to 300): everything together, on the biggest ponds with all six petal colors.
Helpers
Helpers are earned in play and only used when you tap them. Nothing is ever sold.
| Helper | What it does | How you get it |
|---|---|---|
| Put back | Takes back your last stack and undoes its hops | Free once in every pond |
| Rain | Brings new stacks to the bank. We check that the goal can still be reached | Daily goals, seed packets, the weekly stamp |
| Net | Lifts any one stack off the pond | Daily goals, seed packets, star milestones |
| Frog call | Sends the frogs away while you make three moves | Daily goals, star milestones |
The light bulb shows a hint for one good move. Hints are free and only appear when you ask. Restart is always free too.
Daily Pond and leaderboards
The Daily Pond is the same pond with the same 42 stacks for everyone on the UTC day. Reach its goal for 600 points, then keep going until the stacks run out or the pond fills. Your first finished run of the day is the one that counts and goes to the Daily leaderboard. Replays are practice.
| Scoring | Points |
|---|---|
| Each petal in a lotus | 10 |
| Each lotus | 50 |
| Each extra step in a chain | 30 |
| Reaching the goal | 600 |
Play the Daily Pond on back-to-back days to build a streak. One missed day each week counts as a rest day and bends the streak instead of breaking it.
Each week there's also a special Rain Garden pond. It isn't a leaderboard. Clear it for a stamp and a Rain.
Garden, seed packets and goals
Every lotus you open helps a water garden grow: reeds, koi, a stone lantern, a wooden bridge, a tea pavilion and more, 20 pieces in all. There are 40 seed packets to collect, from every tenth level, from days when you finish all three daily goals and from weekly stamps. Each full row of ten gives a Rain and a Net. Three new daily goals appear at midnight UTC, and each pays a helper once.
Controls (phone and computer)
| Action | Touch or mouse | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Pick a stack | Tap it | 1 2 3, or the arrows and Enter |
| Set it down | Tap a pad, or drag | Arrows or Tab to a pad, then Enter or Space |
| Put back | Put back button | U |
| Hint | Light bulb | H |
| Pause | Pause button | Esc |
| Skip the hops | Tap anywhere | Space |
Settings has high contrast (stronger colors and a shape mark on every layer), large pieces, sound and the pond sounds of crickets and frogs.
Tips and strategy
- Look under the top color. A stack whose second color matches a neighbour will chain once its top run leaves, so set it next to a stack it can feed.
- Build one tall stack per color instead of three short ones. Petals gather toward the longest run, so a stack at 7 pulls in a neighbour's 3 and opens.
- Keep a few pads empty in the middle of the pond. Corners have only two or three neighbours, so stacks parked there rarely merge again.
- Use the three bank stacks in any order. If one stack doesn't fit anywhere yet, place the other two first and see what opens up.
- Save Put back for the move that fills the pond. It undoes the whole chain, not just the stack.
Questions
Is Lily Stacks free?
Yes. It's free in any browser on phone, tablet or computer, with no download and nothing to buy.
How do stack sort puzzles work?
You place stacks of colored pieces on a board. Neighbouring stacks with the same top color merge by themselves, and a big enough run of one color clears. The skill is choosing where each stack goes.
Can every level be finished?
Yes. Every level, Daily Pond and weekly Rain Garden is checked by our solver with the exact stacks you'll get, and it reaches the goal with pads to spare.
What happens when the pond fills up?
You can use the free Put back once per pond, lift a stack with a Net, or restart for free. There are no lives and no timers.
How many petals open a lotus?
Ten petals of one color on top of a stack. If more than ten gather, they all go into the lotus.
Does my progress save?
Yes. Your pond is saved after every move, so you can close the tab and pick up exactly where you left off.
