Solving Under Par: A Practical Guide to Fewer Moves

Par is the designer's signature

Every board's par count is the move total of the solution the designer intended, verified by testers. Finishing under par means you found a line more efficient than the one we built the board around, which is the closest thing the game has to style.

Solve once for completion, again for economy

Do not hunt par on the first attempt. Finish the board to learn its logic, then replay with the knowledge that a solution exists. Second runs routinely drop thirty percent of the move count because you stop exploring dead ends you already mapped.

Count setup moves, not solution moves

Most wasted moves are positioning: shuffling a blocker three times to clear a path a single rotation would have opened. Before any sequence, ask which single move improves the most pieces' positions at once. The best moves are rarely the most obvious ones.

Let the board reset do the work

Undoing to the start is free and instant. Treat your first run as reconnaissance, map the critical path mentally, then execute the clean line. Speedrunners in our season events do exactly this: solve slow, then solve fast.

Watch your own replay

The solution replay shows your move history as a sequence, which exposes the shuffling you did not notice while doing it. Two or three replays a week will teach you more about economy than a hundred fresh boards.