Ringlock: a circular sliding puzzle

What is Ringlock?

Ringlock is a circular sliding puzzle, free in your browser on phone, tablet and computer. A round board of rings surrounds a glowing hole, a golden marble waits on the rim, and colourful curved and straight pieces block its way in. Turn the curved pieces around their rings and slide the straight ones in and out along their spokes, and the moment the way below the marble opens, it drops, ring by ring, toward the centre.

There is one rule for moving, drag a piece along its track until something stops it, and the whole puzzle is the order you do it in. Straight pieces block curved ones, curved pieces block straight ones, and the marble blocks the ring it sits in, so letting it fall too soon can close the way behind it. 500 levels climb from Beginner to Insane, each searched by computer so its par is the true fewest moves, and a new daily board arrives every day.

How to play Ringlock

1. The goal: get the golden marble into the hole in the centre. It waits on the rim at the top and falls straight in, ring by ring, whenever the cell below it is empty.
2. Curved pieces slide around their ring, clockwise or anticlockwise. Straight pieces slide in and out along their spoke. Drag a piece along its track until something stops it; nothing turns, jumps or passes through anything else.
3. The marble blocks the ring it is sitting in, so a curved piece on that ring can't pass it. Rings the marble has already left are free to move again.
4. One slide of one piece is one move, however far it goes. Par is the fewest moves the board can be solved in. Match par for three stars.
5. On a touch screen you can also tap a piece and use the arrows that appear. With a keyboard, Tab picks a piece and the arrow keys slide it.
6. There is no losing and no time limit. Undo, Redo and Restart are always free, and a hint shows the best next move from wherever you are.

Ringlock tips and strategy

• Work from the marble down: look at what blocks the cell below it, and what blocks that piece.
• When a curved piece can't turn, look for the straight piece in its way, and then for whatever is stopping that one.
• Don't hurry the marble. Once it drops into a ring, the curved pieces there can't pass it, so set that ring up first.
• Pieces on rings the marble has passed still move, and sometimes moving one of them is the only way to free something deeper.
• A long slide counts as one move, the same as a short one, so slide pieces as far as they need to go in one go.
• If the game says the marble can't reach the centre any more, it fell too soon. Undo brings it back.

500 levels, six bands

Beginner levels teach the ideas one at a time in one to three moves. Easy levels need 4 to 7 moves, Normal 8 to 14, Hard 14 to 24, Expert 24 to 40, and Insane levels 40 to 68 on boards of five and six rings. Every level was built by a generator that changes one piece at a time and keeps the change when the board gets harder, then checked by an exact solver that searches every position the board can reach. Boards that a simple trial-and-error player can solve, or that can be solved by turning everything the same way, are thrown out.

The daily board

A new board arrives every day, the same for everyone. Monday's is gentle and the week builds to Sunday's. Solve it to grow your streak, play past days from the calendar, and see who reached the centre in the fewest moves, with ties going to the faster time.

Ringlock FAQ