Play Ball Sort Puzzle Online

Ball Sort uses the same tube idea as Water Sort but moves one ball per turn. Colors that already touch do not travel as a group. Six tubes provide two empty workspaces and four balls of each color. Pick up a top ball, check the receiving tube, and build complete stacks without trapping a needed ball underneath.

1. Click a nonempty tube to select its top ball.
2. Click an empty tube or a tube topped by the same color.
3. Only one ball moves per click pair.
4. Use the two spare tubes to expose balls buried underneath other colors.
5. Undo a move if the remaining top colors leave you stuck.
6. Win when each nonempty tube has four balls of one color.
7. Six tubes appear at the start. Four contain mixed balls and two contain none. Select a source tube and a destination just as in Water Sort, but expect exactly one ball to move. A pair of same-colored balls on top of a source tube needs two separate transfers, which can change the plan when capacity is limited.
8. Because balls move individually, a source with two blue balls on top may require selecting the same tube twice to transfer both. Watch the destination capacity between those transfers. When you can complete a four-ball stack, that full tube stops being workspace, so decide whether the other empty space is enough to release the remaining buried colors. A tube with one ball of a needed color may be more useful than a nearly full tube whose top ball blocks the next transfer.

• A tube holds at most four balls.
• Only a top ball may leave its tube.
• The destination must be empty or have a matching top ball.
• All nonempty tubes need a full stack of one color at completion.
• The top ball blocks every ball underneath it. Moving it onto a different color is not allowed, even if that destination has three empty spaces. Moving onto a matching color is allowed until the receiving tube reaches four balls. Empty tubes can accept any top ball and are your temporary workspace.

• Count open spaces before moving a ball onto a nearly full tube.
• Do not occupy both spare tubes with different colors without a plan to clear one.
• Keep stacking one color until its destination is complete when possible.
• A same-color pair is useful, but remember that moving it takes two separate turns.
• Undo and revisit an early move if every visible top color is different and no tube is empty.

• Water Sort: Compare how a related puzzle uses regions, paths or tile placement.
• Color Flood: Compare how a related puzzle uses regions, paths or tile placement.
• Numberlink: Compare how a related puzzle uses regions, paths or tile placement.

• One-ball transfers make each decision easy to see.
• The spare tubes invite short plans and careful reversals.
• The one-ball rule makes individual turns easy to follow, while the layered starting mix still requires planning. Several legal moves can lead to a dead end if both temporary tubes fill with unrelated colors. Because Undo restores the complete prior arrangement, you can investigate where a sequence became blocked instead of restarting blindly.

Play Ball Sort free in your browser. Start the interactive board above, use its on-screen controls and check the rules below when a deduction gets stuck. No download or account is needed.

Try another round of Ball Sort on the board above. Start with the most constrained part of the grid, test each move against the stated rules, and use the reset control to try a new approach.

• How to Solve Ball Sort