How to play Ball Sort
A puzzle for one: coloured balls mixed in tubes, sorted one ball at a time until every tube holds one colour.
- Players
- 1
- What you need
- Tubes of coloured balls, four to a tube, and two empty tubes
- How long
- A minute for an easy puzzle, ten or more for an expert one
What Ball Sort is
Ball Sort is a sorting puzzle. Balls of several colours are mixed up in glass tubes, four balls to a tube, with two tubes left empty. The aim is to move the balls about until every tube holds four balls of one colour, or nothing at all.
Nothing is hidden and nothing is left to chance. The whole puzzle is there to see from the first move, and every puzzle dealt here has been solved by the computer before you see it, so there is always a way through.
Playing it here
- Tap a tube. Its top ball lifts out and floats over the mouth.
- Tap another tube to drop the ball in. If it cannot go there, the tap picks up that tube’s ball instead.
- Tap the same tube again to put the ball back.
Undo takes back as many moves as you like, and Start again puts every ball back where the puzzle began. Hint lights two tubes: move a ball from one to the other and you are still on a way through. On a computer, U undoes, H asks for a hint and Escape puts a picked ball back.
Where a ball may go
Only the top ball of a tube moves, and only one ball at a time. It may go into an empty tube, or onto a ball of its own colour, as long as that tube has room. A tube holds four.
When a tube holds four balls of one colour it is finished. It closes with a cap, and its balls cannot be picked up again.
How a puzzle ends
The puzzle is sorted when every tube is finished or empty, and the clock stops there. Your time is kept as your best at that level if you took no hint, and undos cost nothing but the time they take.
You cannot lose by getting stuck, because Undo can always take you back to where it went wrong. If you would rather stop, Give up ends the puzzle after asking.
The levels
The level is how many colours are mixed: five at easy, seven at medium, nine at hard and twelve at expert. There are always two empty tubes, so more colours means more tubes and more balls in the way.
Every colour has a mark of its own as well, a star, a heart, a ring and so on, so two colours that look alike never carry the same mark.
Today’s puzzle
Each level has a puzzle of the day, the same for everybody in Nepal, which changes at midnight in Kathmandu. Play it as often as you like: your best time on it is kept.
A new puzzle is dealt fresh every time, as many as you like.
A few tips
- Look before you move. Find a colour whose balls are mostly near the tops of their tubes, and sort that one first.
- The empty tubes are your room to work in. Fill one with a single ball only when you know where the balls on top of it will go.
- A tube with one colour at the bottom is half built. Keep other colours off it, and bring its colour to it.
- Stuck? Undo a few moves rather than one. The mistake is usually further back than the last move.
Settings
Ball Sort has one setting, and the page asks first whether you want today’s puzzle or a new one.
| Setting | Standard | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Level | Easy (5 colours) | How many colours are mixed, from five to twelve, with two empty tubes at every level. |
Words
- Tube
- A glass tube that holds four balls, stacked one on another.
- Top ball
- The ball nearest a tube’s mouth, the only one that can move.
- Finished tube
- A tube of four balls of one colour. It is capped and stays as it is.
- Mark
- The small shape on every ball, one per colour, so the colours can be told apart without seeing them.
Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.