How to play Twofold
Twofold is a number-merging game on a 4 by 4 board. Every move slides all the tiles one way at once, and when two tiles with the same number meet they join into one tile worth double, which is added to your score. The twist is the limit: a round lasts one hundred moves, so the question is not how long you can survive but how much you can build before the moves run out. The Daily gives everyone the same starting tiles and the same new tiles for the same moves, so scores compare; Practice deals a fresh board whenever you like.
How to play
- A 4 by 4 board starts with two numbered tiles.
- Slide every tile one way at a time: up, down, left or right. Use the four buttons, the arrow keys or W, A, S and D, or swipe the board.
- When two tiles with the same number meet, they join into one tile of double the number, and that number is added to your score.
- A tile joins at most once per move, and the pair nearest the edge you slide toward joins first.
- After every move that changes the board, a new tile appears in an empty cell: usually a 2, sometimes a 4. A direction that moves nothing is not a move and costs you nothing.
- The round ends after one hundred moves, or sooner if no direction can move anything. Your score is the total of every join; the highest tile is shown beside it.
Tips & strategy
- Pick a corner for your biggest tile and keep it there. Building along one edge toward that corner keeps the large numbers side by side, where they can join.
- Lean on two directions, say left and down, and use a third only when you have to. The direction that pulls your biggest tile out of its corner is the one to avoid.
- Join upward, not outward. The same numbers joined into one big tile score more than the same numbers left as several middling ones, because every join on the way up is counted again.
- Keep an empty cell or two. A full board with no matching neighbours ends the round early, and every move you never get to make is score you never take.
- Cash in at the end. With the hundredth move in sight, take the joins that are there rather than setting up ones you will not reach: two equal tiles left side by side at the finish are points left on the board.
Accessibility
Every tile shows its number as text, so the shade is only a second cue. After each move one short announcement says which way you slid, where the new tile appeared and the score, and "The board in words" reads the whole board row by row, with empty cells named, for planning the next move. The four direction buttons do exactly what a swipe or an arrow key does, and on a keyboard the board is a single stop that takes the arrow keys and W, A, S and D.