Nut Sort: the empty bolt is part of the solution

Nut Sort is a new addition to TAPA GAME for players who like sorting puzzles with a clear destination. You move the top nut from one bolt onto an empty bolt or a nut of the same color. The numbered goal bolts need their matching nuts, and the spare bolts must be empty when the board is finished.

Read the goal before filling a bolt

A stack of matching colors can look finished even when it is on the wrong bolt. Check the goal number before committing to a destination. You are arranging the nuts for the marked targets, not merely making tidy stacks wherever they fit.

Only the top nut can move. A buried color stays unavailable until you remove everything above it. That makes the order of your temporary moves as important as the eventual arrangement.

Keep somewhere to put the next nut

An empty bolt gives you a place to expose a buried piece. Filling every spare too early can leave you with matching colors that you cannot actually reach.

Before a move, ask which nut it reveals and where that newly exposed nut could go. If the answer is another blocked bolt, look one step farther ahead. Sometimes the useful move makes a stack look less organized for a while.

How to start a round

Tap the source bolt and then the destination, or use the arrow keys and Enter. U undoes a move; R retries the level. There are twenty boards to solve.

Start by reading the goals and locating the colors trapped deepest in mixed stacks. Give those nuts a route to their numbered bolts, and keep at least one useful temporary space until the remaining moves are clear.