🔽 Drop Merge
🧩 Logic · 1 playsDrop Merge
Drop numbered tiles down a narrow board and let equal neighbours double away.
About Drop Merge
A numbered tile is dropped into one of five columns; wherever equal tiles come to touch, they merge and double, and a good drop sets off a chain — merges creating new equals, cascading up through the powers of two. The board is only seven rows deep, so the arithmetic pleasure comes with a housekeeping obligation: small tiles left scattered across separate columns become sediment that no future tile can reach. Keeping equal values adjacent, building each column in descending order, and saving a chain for the moment a column runs high are what separate a long game from a brief one.
How to Play
Tap or drag to choose the column for the next tile. Tiles of equal value that touch merge into one and double; chains of merges score a rising bonus. The game ends when a column fills to the top, so keep the small numbers consolidated.
💡 Tips & Strategy
Build each column like a pantry: largest values at the bottom, smallest on top. A column that descends in order merges from the top down in one continuous chain when the right tile lands; a column with a small tile buried under a large one holds a debt you can only repay by luck.
Keep equal tiles adjacent across columns, because merges work sideways too. Two 16s in neighbouring columns at the same height are a loaded spring — the next 16 dropped between or atop them triggers a multiple merge, and chains multiply the bonus. The best players are not placing this tile; they are staging the next three.
Reserve one column as the dump for awkward small tiles, ideally an edge column, and clean it whenever its top matches an incoming tile. Scattering the junk across the board instead is what kills runs: five columns each carrying one stray 2 is five ceilings lowered at once.
Height is the clock, so spend your merges when it matters. Early, play flat and wide, keeping all columns low and even. When any column reaches two rows from the top, the calculus flips — every move must reduce that column, and the chain you staged earlier is the parachute. If you find yourself dropping a tile with no plan beyond survival, the position went wrong ten tiles ago; the lesson is almost always the same one about the buried small tile.