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Arrow Puzzle

Clear every block. A block can only leave when nothing is in the way of its arrow.

Time0:00
Left12 / 12
All GamesHall of FameHow to Play

Drag to rotate · Scroll or pinch to zoom · Click a block to release it

How to play

How the Arrow Puzzle works

The Arrow Puzzle is a three-dimensional block puzzle. Every block in the structure has an arrow pointing one way, and a block can only be released when nothing is standing in the way of that arrow. Release every block in the structure to clear the puzzle.

The puzzle is generated fresh each time rather than taken from a fixed set, so no two puzzles are quite the same. What makes it a puzzle rather than a race is that the blocks hold each other in: releasing one opens up the blocks behind it, so the structure comes apart in an order you have to work out as you go.

  1. 1

    Look around the structure

    Drag anywhere on the puzzle to rotate it, and scroll or pinch to zoom in and out. The structure is solid, so blocks hidden behind others only become reachable once the ones in front of them have gone.

  2. 2

    Find a block with a clear arrow

    A block's arrow needs a free path out of the structure. A block pointing into the middle of the stack cannot move until the blocks around it have been released, which is what makes some blocks available at the start and most of them not.

  3. 3

    Release it

    Click or tap a block to release it. It leaves the structure, and the count of blocks remaining goes down by one. If you release something you did not mean to, Undo puts it straight back at no cost.

  4. 4

    Work from the outside in

    Every release opens up whatever was behind it, so the structure frees itself as it comes apart. The blocks on the surface are the ones with somewhere to go; the ones buried in the middle are freed by the work you do around them.

  5. 5

    Clear the last block

    The clock stops when the structure is empty. Your time is recorded against that difficulty, and if it is quick enough it is offered to that difficulty's leaderboard.

The difficulty levels

Each level is a bigger structure than the one before it, and each has its own leaderboard.

  • Easy12 blocks3 × 3 × 3
  • Medium24 blocks4 × 4 × 3
  • Hard40 blocks5 × 4 × 3
  • Expert64 blocks5 × 5 × 4
  • Extreme125 blocks5 × 5 × 5
  • Insanity216 blocks6 × 6 × 6

Things worth knowing

  • Start at the outside. Surface blocks whose arrows point away from the structure are almost always free to release.
  • If you cannot find a move, rotate. A block that looks blocked from one angle often has a clear path from another.
  • Undo costs nothing, so a wrong release costs you time rather than score. Only hints come off the score.
  • Hints take 10% off the score for that run, up to a maximum of half, and never affect your place on the board — the boards are ordered by time, not by points.
  • Your best time for each difficulty is remembered in your own browser, whether or not you ever submit a run.

Questions

Arrow Puzzle questions