The idea
You are the display hand at Santa's toy shop on the night before opening. Every shelf arrived from the sleigh with its toys cut apart — a teddy bear split down the middle, a nutcracker halved, a rocking reindeer in four quarters — and shuffled across the shelf. There is exactly one empty slot, and everything moves through it.
Your job is to slide the pieces back to where they belong. When the halves of one toy meet in the right place, the seam vanishes and the toy is whole again.
Moving pieces
- Tap any card directly above, below, left or right of the empty slot and it slides in.
- Or swipe a neighbouring card toward the slot — whichever feels more natural.
- Diagonals do nothing. Only the four cards touching the slot can move.
- A tap that cannot move anything costs you no moves, so exploring is free.
- Finished toys are locked and will not move again, for you or for anything else.
One slot, one route. The empty slot is the only thing on the shelf that can travel freely. Almost every puzzle here is really the question of where to walk that slot next.
Assembling a toy
Two conditions have to be true at the same moment for a toy to come together:
- Its pieces sit in the right order relative to each other — left piece on the left, top piece on top, each quarter in its own corner.
- They are sitting in that toy's own place on the shelf, not merely somewhere that happens to be adjacent.
Meet both and the pieces snap together with a small bounce and a warm glow, and become one finished toy that no longer moves.
Line the pieces up correctly somewhere else on the board and you will see a brief blue seam instead — the game telling you the shape is right but the address is wrong. Nothing locks. That is deliberate: a toy assembling in the wrong spot could wall off the board for good.
The three cuts
| Cut | Pieces | Shows up |
|---|---|---|
| Left and right | Two, side by side | From level 1 |
| Top and bottom | Two, stacked | From level 6 |
| Four quarters | Four, in a 2 × 2 block | From level 41 |
Some shelves also carry single-piece toys that need no assembly. They still have to reach their own spot before the shelf counts as finished, and until they do they make useful movable filler.
Finishing a shelf
A shelf is done when every split toy is assembled, every single-piece toy is home, and the empty slot is where the shelf expects it. The board is complete and the display is set.
If the move counter reaches zero first, the shelf ends. You can restart it immediately from the same starting layout at no extra energy cost, or step back to the map. There is nothing to watch and nothing to buy to keep going.
Stars and move limits
Each shelf carries three numbers: a move limit and two star thresholds. They are set from a solver's shortest solution with a margin on top, not guessed.
| Result | What it takes |
|---|---|
| ★★★ | Finished within the three-star move count |
| ★★ | Finished within the two-star move count |
| ★ | Finished within the move limit |
Only your best result on a shelf is kept, so replaying can improve a rating but never lower it. Eighty shelves at three stars each puts 240 stars on the board in total.
Undo, Restart and Shuffle
Undo
Steps the board back one move. Useful for taking back a slip without giving up the run.
Restart
Returns the shelf to exactly the layout you started with. Costs no energy — restart as often as you like.
Shuffle card
Deals the loose pieces a fresh layout when a board has knotted itself up. It follows strict rules:
- Toys you have already assembled do not move. Ever.
- The new layout is generated by legal moves from the current one, so it is always still solvable.
- It does not give back moves, does not unlock anything, and does not change the shelf's target.
- Using one clears your undo history, since the board it referred to is gone.
You start the game with one Shuffle card. More come from tasks, or from the shop.
Energy
- You hold up to 10 energy.
- Opening a shelf costs 1.
- Restarting the shelf you are already on costs nothing.
- Leaving to the map and opening the shelf again costs 1 again.
- Energy refills on its own over time, up to the cap of 10, and keeps refilling while the app is closed.
Out of energy and impatient? An Energy Potion from the shop tops you back up.
The four chapters
| Chapter | Levels | Board | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Night | 1–20 | 4 × 4 | Left-and-right cuts to begin; top-and-bottom arrives at level 6 |
| Snowy Avenue | 21–40 | 5 × 5 | A bigger board, more toys at once, targets pushed toward the corners |
| Clockwork Loft | 41–60 | 5 × 6 | Four-quarter toys start here, sharing the board with two-piece gifts |
| Grand Holiday Display | 61–80 | 5 × 6 | Every cut type at once, locking order matters, tightest move counts |
Progression is linear: earn at least one star on a shelf and the next one opens.
Tasks
Three tracks run alongside the shop, each on its own tab:
- Daily — a fresh set each morning. Short goals: clear a few shelves, earn some stars, finish one without a hint.
- Story — tied to the four chapters. Reaching chapter milestones and assembling your first four-quarter toy sit here.
- Lifetime — long counters across your whole save: total shelves cleared, total moves made, total stars earned.
All three pay out in coins, energy and Shuffle cards. A finished task shows a red dot until you claim it, and a claimed reward can never be claimed twice.
The shop
Coins earned from shelves and tasks are spent here, on two kinds of thing:
- Board frames — Classic Pine (yours from the start), Candy Cane, Midnight Workshop and Snowy Window. These change how your puzzle board is framed. One is equipped at a time.
- Shop decorations — a fir tree, a hearth rug, a golden gift display and more, for the front counter.
- Supplies — Energy Potions and Shuffle cards, for when you would rather not wait.
Frames and decorations are appearance only. Nothing in the shop makes a puzzle easier or harder, and nothing in the shop costs real money — coins are earned by playing, and only by playing.
A few tips
- Read before you touch. The shelf shows you where every toy belongs. Thirty seconds of looking beats twenty moves of shoving.
- Order is the puzzle. Each toy you lock is a route you can no longer use. Finish the ones near the edges and corners first, while the middle is still open.
- Keep one big toy loose. A two-piece toy left unassembled is two cards you can still push around. Sometimes it is worth leaving it until last on purpose.
- Watch the slot, not the pieces. Plan where the empty slot has to travel, and the pieces tend to follow.
- Restart early. If a run has gone wrong by move ten, restarting costs nothing at all — no energy, no penalty.
Still stuck?
Every one of the eighty shelves is built backwards from its finished state and checked by a solver, so a way through always exists. If a particular one seems impossible, write to Valesdarian@icloud.com with the level number and we will take a look.