Trinket Trio

What is Trinket Trio?

Triple tile match games mix two old ideas: the layered pile from tile solitaire and the "three of a kind" clear from match three games. You don't swap anything. You just choose which tile to take next, and the skill is in choosing well. Our shelves are stacked with little trinkets like croissants, seashells, rockets and ladybugs, and you clear the whole shelf to win.

Trinket Trio is free, plays in your browser on phone, tablet or computer, and doesn't need a download or an account.

How to play

• Tap any trinket that isn't covered to move it into the tray at the bottom.
• Covered trinkets look darker. You can't take one until everything on top of it is gone.
• When three of the same trinket are in the tray, they clear and free up their slots.
• The tray has 7 slots. If it fills up with no trio to clear, the level is over.
• Clear every trinket on the shelf to win.

The tray keeps matching trinkets next to each other, so it's easy to see what you're one tile away from finishing. When the tray gets down to one free slot, its border flashes red as a warning.

Tray full? You get one save

The first time your tray fills in a level, you can tap Put 3 back. The last three trinkets you took go back to the shelf and you keep playing. It's free, once per level. After that, a full tray ends the run, and you can try again right away.

Controls (phone and computer)

Tap or click trinkets to take them. On a computer the keyboard works too:

Stars and the clock

Levels are scored on time. The clock starts with your first tap, and the top of the screen shows your current stars and how long you have left to keep them. The targets scale with the size of the shelf: about a second and a half per trinket plus 15 seconds for 3 stars, and about 2.6 seconds per trinket plus 30 seconds for 2 stars. Any clear earns at least 1 star. The win screen tells you how many seconds you missed 3 stars by, which is handy on a replay.

Levels start small (level 1 is just nine trinkets in one layer) and build to big shelves with up to five layers and ten kinds of trinket. Every fifth level after the first few is a smaller breather.

Combos

Clear a trio within 4 seconds of the last one and you start a combo. Each trio is worth 30 points times your combo number, so a quick run of clears adds up fast. Combos matter most on the daily.

Boosters

You start with 2 of each booster, and the counts carry over between levels.

• Undo takes your last trinket back out of the tray and returns it to the shelf.
• Magnet finds the trinket you have the most of in your tray and pulls enough matching ones off the shelf to finish the trio, even ones that are buried. With an empty tray it picks the kind you can most easily reach.
• Peek lets you see through the pile for 4 seconds, so you can find out what the dark, covered trinkets are.

You earn more by playing: +1 magnet for your first win each day, +1 undo for a first 3-star clear on every other level, and a gift box every 5 new levels with one of each.

Shelves, stickers and the daily puzzle

Levels come in groups of 15, each on its own shelf: Sweet Bakery, Sunny Beach, Star Station and Secret Garden. After the first 60 the shelves come around again as Sweet Bakery 2 and onward.

Each shelf has ten trinkets, and the first time you clear a trio of one, you get its sticker for your Sticker Album. That makes 40 stickers in all, from the Cinnamon Roll and Cherry Pie to the Satellite, Alien, Snail and Watering Can.

The Daily Shelf is the same 54-trinket puzzle for everyone that day, four layers deep with eight kinds of trinket. It's scored on points: 10 per trinket cleared, plus your combo points, plus a 300 point bonus for clearing the shelf and 5 points for every second you beat the 3-star time. Playing on consecutive days builds your streak, and your best score goes on the daily leaderboard.

Triple match tips and strategy

• Never take a lone tile you can't pair soon. Every single trinket sitting in the tray is a slot you've lost. Before you tap, ask whether you can see two more of that kind.
• Finish trios before starting new ones. Having two of one kind in the tray is fine. Having two of four different kinds is how trays fill up.
• Dig toward the dark tiles. Covered trinkets are the ones that end runs, because you can't get at them when you need them. When you have a free choice, take the tile that uncovers the most.
• Count what's left. Every kind comes in multiples of three. If you've cleared one trio of donuts and can see two more, the third is under something.
• Keep two slots free late in a level. Near the end the tiles you need are often buried. Two open slots gives you room to dig without losing.
• Use Peek before a big decision, not after. Four seconds of seeing the bottom layers is worth the most when you're about to choose which side of the pile to dig into.
• Save the Magnet for the endgame. Early on it only saves you a tap or two. Late in a level, pulling a buried tile can rescue a run that would otherwise be lost.
• Then go for speed. On a replay you already know the layout, so you can chase both 3 stars and long combos.

If you enjoy this kind of planning, Jelly Jars is a color sorting puzzle and Bloom Blocks is a block puzzle where you fit pieces onto a grid.

Questions