How to solve color sort puzzles

How sort puzzles work

You get a row of containers, each holding a stack of mixed colors, plus one or two empty ones. You can only move from the top of a stack, and only onto an empty container or onto the same color. Containers have a fixed size. When every container holds a single color, you've won.

In Jelly Jars the containers are jars that hold four jellies each, and every color has exactly four jellies, so a finished jar is four of a kind. When the top of a jar has several matching jellies in a row, they pour together, as many as fit in the target jar.

Why you get stuck

Almost every stuck shelf has the same cause: the empty jars got filled with singles that had nowhere better to go, and now there's no free space to sort into. Once every jar is full or topped with a color that matches nothing, there are no legal moves left.

So the whole game is really about one resource: free space. Each tip below is a way to keep it.

Seven tips that solve more puzzles

1. Look before you pour

Take a few seconds to scan the shelf. Find the color that's closest to done. A jar with three of a color on top only needs one more, and that's usually the cheapest win on the board.

2. Guard your empty jars

An empty jar is your most valuable tool. Don't drop a single piece into one unless it opens something up right away. Filling empties with junk is the usual way people get stuck.

3. Pour runs, not singles

Since matching pieces move as a group, it's often better to wait one move and pour three of a color together than to shuffle them one at a time. Fewer pours also means fewer moves, which matters for stars.

4. Finish one color completely

A finished jar is out of the puzzle for good. It never needs to move again, and every other jar gets a little less crowded. Finishing colors one at a time beats half finishing several.

5. Use the empty jar to dig, then give it back

A common pattern: pour the top color off a jar into the empty one, which uncovers the piece you wanted, make the match, then pour the parked color back somewhere useful so the empty jar is free again.

6. Notice which jars are nearly full

A jar with three pieces can only take one more. Before you plan to pour a run of three onto it, check that there's room, or the move will only take part of the run.

7. If it's going wrong, restart early

When the free space is gone, extra moves rarely help. On a fresh attempt you know where the trouble is, and you'll often solve it in fewer moves than you'd spend untangling.

Hidden colors and locked jars

Harder sort puzzles add pieces you can't fully read. Jelly Jars has two:

• Sleepy jellies, from level 8, wear nightcaps and show in a soft lavender, so you can't tell their real color. A sleepy jelly wakes the moment it's on top of its jar. Uncover them early, so you're not planning around a mystery color at the end.
• Lidded jars, from around level 14, show a number: how many pours anywhere on the shelf until the lid pops off. Until then you can't pour in or out. Treat the jar as one that joins the puzzle later, and plan so its contents are useful when it opens.

Hints, undo and the extra jar

Every Jelly Jars puzzle is checked by a solver before you see it, so there is always a way through. After each pour the game also checks quietly whether the shelf can still be sorted, and it only speaks up when it's certain you're stuck. Then it tells you how many moves to undo, whether an extra jar would rescue you, or that a restart is the quickest fix.

Hints are free, and an extra jar is a big help on a tough level, but using either caps that attempt at 2 stars. A good habit: take one hint to see the idea, finish the level, then replay it clean for the third star. Levels never change, so the trick you learned still works. Three stars means finishing in the solver's par move count or fewer.

The daily puzzle

The Daily Jar is the same puzzle for everyone that day, scored out of 1,000. Moves over par, undos, hints and the extra jar all cost points, and your first finish is the one that counts. Since every undo costs 40 points there, it pays to slow down and plan the first few pours carefully.

For controls, worlds and unlocks, see our Jelly Jars guide. If you like tidy puzzles, Dock Jam is a sliding block puzzle and Trinket Trio is a gentle match game.

Questions