Merge Numbers is a sliding-tile puzzle in the 2048 tradition, on four boards that play nothing like each other. This page covers the one rule people get wrong, why the four targets are so different, and the corner strategy that turns a short run into a long one.
Objective
Slide the whole board with the arrow keys or a swipe. Every tile travels as far as it can in that direction, and two equal tiles that meet become their double. Reach the board's target. When no direction can move anything, the run is over.
Reaching the target is a milestone, not an ending — the banner appears once and then you carry on for as long as you can.
The merge-once rule
A tile may only merge once per slide. This is the rule that surprises people, and it decides everything about how boards fill:
- A row of
2 2 2becomes4 2, not8. The pair nearest the wall merges; the third tile is left as it is. - A row of four equal tiles becomes two pairs, not one tile.
4 4 8becomes8 8— it does not chain on into 16.
Each slide then drops one new tile in: a 2 nine times out of ten, a 4 the other time.
Boards
| Board | Grid | Target | New tiles a slide | Undos |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | 4 × 4 | 2048 | 1 | 3 |
| Roomy | 5 × 5 | 4096 | 1 | 3 |
| Crowded | 4 × 4 | 256 | 2 | 5 |
| Tight | 3 × 3 | 128 | 1 | 5 |
The targets look inconsistent because the boards are. Nine cells cannot hold what sixteen can, and dropping two tiles a slide fills a board far faster than you can tidy it. Each target was set by measuring what an automatic player actually reaches — Crowded and Tight were first written at 512 and 256, and the measurement showed those were simply not honest numbers. Classic keeps 2048 because that is the number the genre is named for, and it is reachable.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Touch |
|---|---|---|
| Slide | ← ↑ → ↓ or WASD | Swipe the board, or the pad below it |
| Undo | Z Backspace | the Undo button |
| Pause | Esc P | the pause button |
| Restart | R | — |
Undo is limited per board and steps back one slide at a time, score and all.
Scoring
Every merge scores the tile it creates. Merging two 512s is worth 1024. That is the entire system, which means your score is decided by what you built rather than how you got there.
Strategy
- Pick one corner and never let your biggest tile leave it. Slide only the three directions that keep it there. This single habit is the difference between 512 and 2048.
- Build each row in descending order away from that corner, so there is always a merge available next to your big tile.
- Never slide in the direction that would pull your corner tile away, even once. One slide is usually enough to lose the structure entirely.
- Undo is for the slide you regret immediately, not for rescuing a board you have already tangled.
- On Crowded, two tiles arrive every slide, so tidy constantly — there is no room to recover from a messy middle.
Questions
Why didn't my three matching tiles all merge?
A tile can only merge once per slide. 2 2 2 becomes 4 2, with the
pair nearest the wall merging first.
Does the game end when I reach 2048?
No. The banner shows once and you carry on for score.
Why is Tight's target only 128?
Because nine cells genuinely cannot do more. The targets were measured rather than guessed, and 128 is the honest number for a 3×3.
Are scores saved per board?
Yes — score, biggest tile and slide count, kept per board in your own browser.
Other guides
- Pixel Invaders — auto-fire, tiny hitboxes and flagships
- Wingbeat — why you should aim low in the gap
- Block Drop — SRS rotation, wall kicks and T-spin scoring
- All guides