The basics
- Pour. Tap a bottle to pick it up, then tap where it should go. Liquid pours onto an empty bottle or onto the same color, and the whole top color moves at once, as much as fits.
- Sort. A level is solved when every bottle holds a single color (or is empty).
- Brew. Recipes ask for full bottles of certain colors. When a recipe is ready the cauldron glows: tap it and those bottles empty into a potion that restores part of the island.
- No way to lose. Undo and restart are unlimited, and a hint shows the next move from the game’s own solver. You get 3 free hints a day, then a short optional video for each extra one, or unlimited hints with the Grove Keeper Pack.
Par and leaves
Every level has a par: the fewest moves it can be solved in, proven by the game’s solver. Finish at par for three leaves. Each brew counts as one move, and par includes the brews.
Special bottles and rules
Each Adventure world adds one new rule, then mixes it with the ones you already know. Classic Sort’s Remix shelves use them too.
World 1 · The Forgotten Garden
Brewing
Recipes at the top of the screen ask for full bottles of certain colors. When a recipe is ready the cauldron glows. Tap it to brew: the ingredient bottles empty out and the potion restores part of the world.
Tip: Brewing early frees two bottles at once. Some levels can only be solved by brewing in the middle of the level.
World 2 · Moonlit Marsh
Hidden layers
The lower layers of some bottles show as dark “?” liquid. A hidden layer reveals its color when it becomes the top of its bottle, as part of the pour that uncovers it.
Tip: Uncover the bottles with the fewest hidden layers first, so you learn the most for the fewest moves.
World 3 · Crystal Caverns
Odd bottle sizes
Bottles come in different sizes. A bottle is complete when it is full of one color, so each color has to end up in a bottle that fits it exactly.
Tip: Count the units of each color first, then decide which bottle each color will finish in.
World 4 · Sky Orchard
Sealed bottles
A sealed bottle can’t be poured into or out of, and is never an ingredient. Brewing the potion named on its seal breaks the seal for good.
Tip: The order you brew in matters: brew the key potion as soon as you can to open up more room.
World 5 · Ember Grove
Fizzing liquid
One color fizzes. Whenever you pour into or out of a bottle, its fizzing layers bubble up to the top. Bottles you don’t touch never change.
Tip: Each bottle fizzes up once, the first time you touch it. Plan which bottle you disturb first.
World 6 · Tidewater Reef
Narrow necks
A narrow-necked bottle pours exactly one unit per pour, however much room the other bottle has. Pouring into it is normal, and the neck never goes away.
Tip: A narrow neck can split a group of one color, which an ordinary bottle can’t. Use that to share a color between two bottles.
World 7 · Frostpeak Hollow
Frozen bottles
A frozen bottle can’t be touched until it thaws. Every pour anywhere on the board melts one snowflake from every frozen bottle. Brewing is not a pour and melts nothing.
Tip: Timing matters as much as order: sometimes a few small pours elsewhere are the best way to free a bottle.
World 8 · Sunglass Dunes
Fragile flasks
A fragile flask crumbles to sand the moment a pour leaves it empty, and is gone for good. Brewing empties it gently, so it stays.
Tip: Free space only shrinks. Choose which flask to give up, or empty it by brewing instead of pouring.
World 9 · Harvest Hollow
Tapped barrels
A tapped barrel pours from its bottom layer, not its top. Liquid still goes in at the top, so a barrel works like a queue: what went in first comes out first.
Tip: Look at the bottom color of each barrel, not the top, when you plan your next pour.
World 10 · Starfall Observatory
Layered elixirs
A layering flask takes any color on top of whatever is in it. Stripe recipes need one full bottle holding the colors in an exact order, bottom to top.
Tip: Build the stripe from the bottom up, and keep ordinary bottles for sorting the rest.
Tips for every level
- Count before you pour. Each color fills exactly one bottle. Knowing where each color will finish saves moves.
- Keep an empty bottle as long as you can. It’s your most flexible space.
- Think about brewing as a move that frees room. Some levels can’t be solved without a brew in the middle.
- Use undo freely. Trying an idea and stepping back is part of the game, and leaves are only counted at the end.
Other ways to play
Classic Sort has 150 pure sorting levels with no recipes.Daily Brew is one new puzzle a day, the same for everyone, gentle on Monday and growing to a Sunday special. It earns dew for My Island, your own little island to decorate.
Brew & Bloom