Unblock Puzzle Tips: Fewer Moves, Faster Levels, Bigger Scores

Updated October 2026

Unblock is a sliding car puzzle on a six by six lot. The red car sits on the third row and has to reach the right edge, while trucks and cars stand in the way. Each level is short, but the run is long: up to forty levels, each with a little less time than the one before. Scoring rewards solving in few moves as much as solving at all. This guide covers how levels are built, exactly how points and time work, and a reading method that cuts wasted moves.

How a level is put together

The red car is two squares long and always starts in one of the three leftmost columns of its row. The other vehicles come in two kinds. Vertical cars and trucks always cross the red car's row somewhere to its right, so these are the real blockers. Horizontal ones are parked on the other rows, anywhere from left to right. Each vehicle is either two or three squares long.

The number of other vehicles is the level number plus one: two on level 1, three on level 2, and so on until level 6, where it reaches seven. From then on every level has seven, and the difficulty comes from the clock instead. Before a level is shown, the game runs a complete search to confirm it can actually be solved, so you never face an impossible lot.

Because only a few columns of the red row are free, the vertical blockers run out of room quickly. In our simulation of the level builder, a level with seven vehicles had on average only about two or three verticals in the red row, with the rest parked horizontally on other rows. Those horizontals matter because they are what stops a vertical blocker from leaving. The same simulation, using a shortest-solution search over a few thousand levels at each size, gives a feel for how long solutions are. On level 1 the shortest solution is three moves or fewer every time. With seven vehicles, from level 6 onward, the most common shortest solutions are three to five moves, about one level in six needs six or more, and the longest we saw took thirteen. Those counts include the final move of the red car.

What counts as a move

Press a vehicle and drag it along its own direction; it follows your finger, snaps to the nearest square when you let go, and cannot pass the first obstacle in its path or the edge of the lot. One drag is one move, however far the vehicle travels. A drag that ends where it began costs nothing.

That rule changes how you should drag. Sliding a truck two squares in one stroke costs one move, while two separate one-square nudges cost two. Before you lift your finger, make sure the vehicle is where it needs to be for the rest of the plan, not merely out of the way for the next step. The move counter sits at the top right of the board.

How each level is scored

A cleared level is worth three parts added together:

• Base: 100 points.
• Efficiency: 10 points for every move under 25, so 3 moves earns 220 and 10 moves earns 150. At 25 moves or more this part is zero.
• Level: 25 points times the level number.

So a four-move clear is worth 335 on level 1 and 560 on level 10, and the level part alone is worth 500 by level 20. Each wasted move costs exactly 10 points, which is the reason to think before you drag. But reaching a later level matters even more, because the level part keeps growing while the efficiency part cannot exceed 240.

The time budget

Each level has its own countdown, shown at the top of the board, and it turns red in the last ten seconds. Level 1 gives 60 seconds, and each later level gives 1.5 seconds less: 46.5 on level 10, 31.5 on level 20, 16.5 on level 30 and only 1.5 seconds on level 40. The clock runs in real time, so leaving the app does not pause it.

The countdown stops the instant the red car reaches the exit, and the next one only starts when you press Next level. Use that screen to rest your eyes. If time does run out, the run ends but you keep every point already banked, so there is no reason to press End run when you could attempt another level instead. The only time to stop is when you want to save a score right away.

Reading the red car's row

Start every level by looking only along the red car's row. List each vehicle that crosses it, from left to right. For each, ask two questions: which way can it leave the row, up or down, and what is in the way on that side?

• A two-square vertical car can leave upward or downward, moving one or two squares depending on where it sits. A three-square truck can only clear the row by going down, because there are just two rows above the red car's row and the truck needs three. It must end up occupying the bottom three rows of its column, so anything parked there has to move first.
• If a blocker cannot leave in either direction, the thing in its way becomes your real first target. Often that is a horizontal car on another row that must slide sideways to open a gap.
• If a vertical blocker has vehicles both directly above and directly below it, neither direction is open. One of those neighbours has to move first. If it is a horizontal vehicle, check whether its row has a free square for it to slide into.

Once you have the chain of dependencies, play it backward: free the deepest obstacle first, then each blocker in turn, and finish with a single long drag of the red car to the exit. The red car's last move counts as one, however far it travels, so never inch it forward in stages.

Habits that save moves and seconds

1. Do not touch the red car early. Moving it forward partway rarely helps and costs a move. Its only move should usually be the last one.
2. Move each vehicle once. Plan where a blocker must end up, then drag it there in one stroke.
3. Watch the vertical trucks. A three-square truck in the row can only go one way, down, so whatever sits below it is often the real bottleneck. Solve its path first.
4. Undo with care. A misplaced car can be dragged back, but that costs another move. Taking two seconds to look is cheaper than two moves.
5. Speed up later. Below about fifteen seconds per level, past level 30, a quick, decent solution beats a slow, perfect one. Running out of time ends the run.

Your best score is saved on your device when a run ends, and you can submit any score above zero to the Hall of Fame from the final card.