Ball Sort Puzzle: How to Play, Tips & Free Online Game
Play Ball Sort Puzzle free online: the rules, a 15-move Level 1 solution, tips to avoid getting stuck, and what a solver revealed about impossible levels.
A ball sort puzzle gives you a row of glass tubes stuffed with mixed-up colored balls and asks for one thing: finish with every tube holding a single color. You move one ball at a time, and a ball can only land on the same color or in an empty tube. It sounds like tidying a drawer. By the time there are eight or nine colors on the board, it plays like chess against your own last move. You can play Ball Sort Puzzle on Puzzit free in your browser, with 3,600 levels and no download.
This guide covers the rules, how the levels get harder, a full worked solution of Level 1, the strategy that stops you from getting stuck, and a question most guides skip: can a ball sort level be impossible? We answered that one by running a solver over real Puzzit levels and hundreds of random boards.
GAME
Ball Sort Puzzle on Puzzit
A free color sorting puzzle that runs in any browser, on phone, tablet or desktop.
GOAL
One color per tube
Finish with every tube holding 4 matching balls, or nothing at all.
LEVELS
3,600 levels
From 4 colors in 6 tubes up to 10 colors in 12 tubes.
PACE
No timer, no lives
Restart any level for free. Your progress saves in the browser.
How to Play Ball Sort Puzzle
The rules fit in one breath, but each one matters later when you plan moves:
- Tap a tube to pick up the ball on top. Only the top ball can move.
- Tap another tube to drop it. The target must be empty or have the same color on top.
- Each tube holds 4 balls. A full tube accepts nothing until you take a ball off it.
- Win when every tube is either a full stack of one color or empty.
Two details are specific to the Puzzit version. First, every move shifts exactly one ball, even when two or three of the same color sit on top of each other. Some apps pour a whole matching stack in one tap, so if you are used to those, expect a higher move count here. Second, an illegal tap (say, red onto green) is simply ignored and does not add to the move counter. The counter, plus the Stats panel with levels played, completed, best level and total moves, gives you something to beat once the sorting itself feels easy.
How the Levels Get Harder
Every level on Puzzit Ball Sort uses the same structure: 4-ball tubes plus exactly two empty spare tubes. What changes is the number of colors. We read through all 3,600 levels and grouped them, then used a solver to find the shortest possible solution for sample levels in each band:
| Levels | Colors | Tubes | Shortest solution (sample) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 100 | 4 | 6 | 15 moves (levels 1 and 100) |
| 101 to 300 | 5 | 7 | 17 to 18 moves (levels 200 and 101) |
| 301 to 700 | 6 | 8 | 22 moves (levels 301 and 500) |
| 701 to 1,200 | 7 | 9 | 26 moves (level 701) |
| 1,201 to 2,000 | 8 | 10 | Grows with each color |
| 2,001 to 2,800 | 9 | 11 | Grows with each color |
| 2,801 to 3,600 | 10 | 12 | Grows with each color |
Two things stand out. Each new color adds roughly three to four moves to the best possible solution, because four more balls need a home. And the spare tubes never grow: you always have two, whether you are sorting 16 balls or 40. That is why late levels feel so much tighter. The workspace stays the same while the clutter more than doubles.
Worked Example: Level 1 in 15 Moves
Level 1 starts like this, reading each tube from top to bottom: Tube 1 green, yellow, yellow, blue. Tube 2 green, red, yellow, green. Tube 3 red, blue, blue, red. Tube 4 red, blue, green, yellow. Tubes 5 and 6 are empty. Here is a 15-move solution, which our solver confirms is the shortest possible:
- Moves 1 to 3: green from Tube 1 into Tube 5, then both yellows from Tube 1 into Tube 6. Tube 1 is now down to a single blue at the bottom.
- Move 4: green from Tube 2 onto the green in Tube 5.
- Moves 5 to 7: red from Tube 3 onto the red now showing on Tube 2 (which fills it), then both blues from Tube 3 onto Tube 1.
- Moves 8 to 11: the two reds on Tube 2 go onto Tube 3, the yellow joins Tube 6, and the last green joins Tube 5. Tube 2 is empty.
- Moves 12 to 15: unstack Tube 4 from the top: red to Tube 3, blue to Tube 1, green to Tube 5, yellow to Tube 6. Solved.
Notice the pattern: the bottom ball of a tube decides what that tube becomes. Tube 1 had blue at the bottom, so it became the blue tube. Tube 3 had red at the bottom and became the red tube. Building on bottom balls that are already in place saves moves, and it is the single most useful habit in the game.
Ball Sort Puzzle Tips and Strategy
- Read the bottom row first. Before your first tap, note which color sits at the bottom of each tube. Those tubes are already partly sorted, and you want to clear down to them rather than fill them with something else.
- Treat empty tubes as your budget. With only two spares on every Puzzit level, dropping a stray ball into your last empty tube is the most common way to get stuck. Spend an empty tube only when it starts a color you can finish.
- Park on a matching color, not on empty glass. If the ball you need to move matches the top of another tube with room, put it there. It keeps an empty tube free and groups colors at the same time.
- Count before you dig. To reach a buried ball, count every ball sitting above it and check that each one has somewhere legal to go. Starting an excavation you cannot finish wastes moves and often a spare tube.
- Finish a color as soon as you can. A completed tube is out of play for good, which means one less color competing for space.
- Do not chase the last ball of a color too early. If three greens are stacked and the fourth is buried deep, leave that stack as a parking spot for now and come back when the fourth surfaces naturally.
- Use Restart as your undo. Puzzit has no undo button, but Restart resets the level for free. If you realize you have used both spares on the wrong colors, restarting is usually faster than digging out.
- Chase the par. Once a band feels easy, try to match the shortest solutions in the table above. Level 1 in 15 moves is a good first target.
Is Every Ball Sort Puzzle Solvable?
This is the question people ask in forums and video comments once they hit a level that will not crack, and most guides skip it. The honest answer is: it depends on how many spare tubes you get.
We tested it. We dealt 300 random four-color boards with 4-ball tubes and had a solver check every one. With one empty tube, 140 of the 300 boards (about 47 percent) had no solution at all. With two empty tubes, all 300 were solvable, and so were 150 random five-color boards. Two spare tubes is the sweet spot that turns a coin flip into a reliably solvable puzzle, and it is exactly what every Puzzit level gives you. Our solver also found solutions for every Puzzit level we sampled, from Level 1 up to Level 701.
So if you are stuck on Puzzit, the level is not broken. The order of your moves is. Restart, read the bottom row again, and try a different first color.
Ball Sort Puzzle Online vs the Apps
Most people discover the game through a phone app or an ad. Here is how the free online version compares with the usual alternatives:
| Version | How a move works | Extras | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puzzit Ball Sort | One ball per tap | 3,600 levels, no timer, free restart, stats | Browser, no download |
| Ball sort apps | Often one ball per tap; some move matching stacks | Usually ads, bonus tubes as boosters, and special levels in some versions | Install from an app store |
| Water sort puzzles | Pours all touching layers of one color | Same idea with liquid instead of balls | Mostly apps |
If you like the color side of the game, Hue Love asks you to arrange tiles into smooth gradients, and Color Maze has you paint a whole maze by rolling a ball. If the planning is what hooks you, Arrows is another order puzzle where the wrong move blocks you, and Lock Puzzle and Zip Dots reward thinking a few steps ahead. For merging rather than sorting, try Cupcake 2048. You can browse them all on the logic puzzles page.
Want more guides like this one? Read our color maze game guide, the arrow puzzle game strategy, the Shikaku guide, or our round-up of the best puzzle games to play online.
Ball Sort Puzzle FAQ
Is Ball Sort Puzzle free to play online?
Yes. Ball Sort Puzzle on Puzzit is free in any browser on phone, tablet or desktop, with no download, no account and no paid boosters.
How do you play ball sort puzzle?
Tap a tube to pick up its top ball, then tap another tube to drop it. A ball can only go onto the same color or into an empty tube, and each tube holds 4 balls. You win when every tube holds one color or is empty.
How many levels does Ball Sort Puzzle have?
Puzzit has 3,600 levels. Levels 1 to 100 use 4 colors, and the color count rises in bands until levels 2,801 to 3,600 use 10 colors in 12 tubes.
Can you undo a move in Ball Sort Puzzle?
Puzzit does not have an undo button. Use Restart instead, which resets the current level at no cost. Illegal taps are ignored and do not count as moves.
Are some ball sort levels impossible?
A random deal with only one spare tube is often impossible: in our test, about 47 percent of four-color boards had no solution. With two spare tubes, every random board we tested was solvable, and every Puzzit level has two spare tubes.
Is there a ball sort puzzle solver?
Online solvers exist where you enter the tubes by hand. You rarely need one on Puzzit: early levels can be solved in 15 moves, and reading the bottom ball of each tube first gets you through most stuck positions.
Will I lose my progress if I close the tab?
No. Puzzit saves your current level and stats in your browser, so you return to the same level next time. Clearing your browser data or switching devices starts you from Level 1 again.
Start Sorting
Read the bottom row, protect your two spare tubes, finish colors as soon as they are in reach, and use Restart without guilt. That is the whole method, and it scales from Level 1 to Level 3,600. Open Ball Sort Puzzle and see whether you can match the 15-move par on your first try.