Mirror Puzzle Tips: Faster Laser Routes Against the Clock

Updated October 2026

Mirror gives you a 6×6 board, a green emitter on one edge, a red receiver on another, and a shrinking clock. Each board is small enough to solve in seconds, but the time limit gets tighter with every level, and by the late thirties you have under ten seconds per board. Speed in Mirror does not come from tapping faster. It comes from recognising which shape of route the board wants and placing the fewest mirrors possible. This guide covers the exact rules the game uses, the route shapes that solve most boards, and how to keep your pace as the clock shrinks.

The rules that matter for speed

The emitter fires along the row or column it sits beside. Tapping an empty cell cycles it through three states: a "/" mirror, then a "\" mirror, then empty again. The beam is recalculated after every tap, and the moment it reaches the receiver the board counts as solved. There is no confirm button and no penalty for wrong guesses, only the time they take.

Two details of the rules are worth knowing well:

• The receiver accepts the beam from any direction. The red marker sits beside one edge cell, and the board is solved as soon as the beam enters that cell, whether it arrives straight from the opposite side or slides in along the edge. You do not have to aim the beam out through the marker.
• The emitter's own cell is playable. A mirror placed in the first cell the beam enters turns it immediately, which is often the quickest way to redirect it.

Dark grey blocks are walls that stop the beam dead. From level 3 onward, a board sometimes includes one fixed mirror, drawn in grey with a thin ring around it; you cannot change it, so treat it as part of the route. The number of walls grows slowly with the level, from one or two at the start up to five from level 13.

How the clock works

The first board allows 40 seconds, and each board after that gets 0.8 seconds less. That means about 32.8 seconds on level 10, 24.8 on level 20, 16.8 on level 30 and 8.8 on level 40, which is the final board. Clear all 40 and the run ends there. Run out of time on any board and the run ends there.

Your score counts boards cleared first and speed second: each cleared board is worth 10,000, plus the time left on the clock when you cleared it, in tenths of a second, added up over the run. The final card shows it as the board count and the total seconds saved, for example "14 · 203.5s". The number at the top of the screen shows the level you are currently on, so if the clock beats you on level 15, you finish with 14 boards. Because the saved seconds only break ties between runs that cleared the same number of boards, clearing one more board always beats any amount of speed. The short pause after each solved board does not come out of the next board's time, because the countdown for a board starts only when it appears. The clock does use real time, though, so switching away from the page does not pause it.

Three route shapes that solve most boards

Before tapping anything, look at where the emitter and the receiver sit relative to each other. The answer usually falls into one of three shapes.

Straight shot. The beam never reaches the receiver on its own: a board that would be solved with no mirror at all is thrown away before you see it, so every board needs at least one tap. The beam's straight line is still where to start. Follow it from the emitter to the first wall or edge and ask where along that line a single turn would point it at the receiver's row or column; the other two shapes grow out of that question.

Edge slide (one mirror). Because the receiver accepts the beam from any side, the quickest route to an opposite-edge receiver in a different row is usually a single mirror on the far edge itself. Send the beam all the way across, then turn it along the far edge column toward the receiver cell. When the receiver is on a side edge, the corner turn works the same way: put a mirror where the beam's line crosses the receiver's row or column. In our simulation, about 73 percent of boards on the first levels could be solved with exactly one mirror.

Step (two mirrors). When walls block the edge slide, shift the beam sideways with two mirrors of the same type a few cells apart, forming a Z. The first turns the beam off its line, the second turns it back to its original heading on a new line. Later boards, with more walls, lean on this shape: from level 10 onward our simulation found about 33 percent of boards needing one mirror, 39 percent needing two, 24 percent three, and only around 4 percent needing four or more.

Reading the mirrors without trial and error

A clean way to remember the two mirror types is to picture the line drawn in the cell. A "/" runs from bottom left to top right; a "\" runs from top left to bottom right. Imagine the beam as a ball bouncing off that line, and the turn becomes obvious.

• Moving right: "/" turns it up, "\" turns it down.
• Moving left: "/" turns it down, "\" turns it up.
• Moving down: "/" turns it left, "\" turns it right.
• Moving up: "/" turns it right, "\" turns it left.

A quick check is that both mirror types swap horizontal travel for vertical travel; only the direction differs. Getting a "\" costs two taps from empty, so deciding the type before you touch the cell saves a tap every time. If you overshoot, a third tap clears the cell, and a fourth starts the cycle again.

Working fast under pressure

1. Glance at the beam first. The yellow line shows where the light goes right now. Find the cell where it first needs to change direction.
2. Check the edge slide. Ask whether one mirror on the receiver's row or column finishes the board. This single question solves most boards.
3. Work backwards when walls interfere. From the receiver cell, trace a straight line inward until it meets the beam's path. The meeting cell is where the last mirror goes.
4. Use fixed mirrors. A grey mirror on the beam's path is a free turn. Often the intended route bounces off it.
5. Remove what you no longer need. Stray mirrors on the beam's path can send it away, so clear failed attempts rather than building around them.

Tapping New during a run with at least one cleared board ends the run and offers to save your score, so use it only when you mean to stop. Your best is kept on your device, and finished runs can go to the Hall of Fame. With the three route shapes in mind, most boards become a one-or-two-tap read, and the shrinking clock stops being frightening until the very last levels.