2048 Unblocked

Sixteen squares, a pair of small numbers and one goal: double your way up to 2048. Each swipe shoves every tile on the board in the same direction, and equal numbers fuse into their sum. That one rule is all you need to learn, yet a single careless move can clog the grid for good.

This copy of 2048 unblocked is Gabriele Cirulli's open-source version, so the feel and the math are the same ones that made the puzzle a hit. It runs in any modern browser, needs no account and keeps your best score on the device you play on.

You begin with two tiles, each a 2 or a 4. Pick a direction and everything slides until it hits a wall or another tile. When two tiles with the same value collide, they become one tile with double the value, so 4 and 4 turn into 8. A tile created in a move will not merge again until the next move.

Any move that shifts something drops a fresh tile into an empty square. It is usually a 2, sometimes a 4. Your score climbs by the value of each new merged tile, which means big merges late in a game are worth far more than early ones.

Reach 2048 and you get a win screen with a choice to keep playing for 4096 or higher. The game is over only when all sixteen squares are filled and no neighbors match in any direction.

• Anchor one corner. Choose a corner for your largest number and treat every move that drags it out as a last resort.
• Retire one direction. If your big tile lives bottom right, try to never press Up. Fewer directions means fewer surprises.
• Line the edge up like a staircase. Keep the row beside your corner in falling order, such as 128, 64, 32, 16, so one merge can ripple all the way down.
• Count empty squares, not points. A board with five or six open squares is healthy. When only two remain, slow down and look for merges before anything else.
• Clean up stray 2s fast. A small tile stuck behind large ones can lock a whole row. Pair it off while it still has a neighbor to join.