Sort the coloured balls into matching tubes. Tube Mix is a free ball sort puzzle. Lift a ball, drop it into another tube and sort every colour into its own tube, with three difficulty levels and undo.
How to play
Every puzzle is a row of glass tubes filled with coloured balls, plus a couple of empty tubes. Your job is to sort the balls so each tube holds only one colour, four balls to a tube.
- Tap a tube to lift the top ball out of it.
- Tap another tube to drop the ball in. It lands if that tube is empty, or if its top ball is the same colour and there is room (a tube holds four balls).
- Tap the same tube again to put the ball back.
- If you tap a tube that can’t take the ball, the lift jumps to that tube instead, so you can change your mind without losing a move.
You solve the puzzle when every tube is either empty or full of a single colour. Each shape inside a ball matches its colour, so it’s easy to tell reds from oranges.
Levels and controls
Pick a difficulty with the buttons at the bottom of the screen. The puzzle changes straight away.
- Easy: 4 colours and 2 empty tubes.
- Medium: 6 colours and 2 empty tubes.
- Hard: 8 colours and 2 empty tubes.
The Undo button takes back your last move, as many times as you like, and Reset puts the current puzzle back to how it started. On a computer you can also press the number keys to pick a tube, or move with the arrow keys and press Space. U undoes and R resets.
Scoring
The big counter shows how many moves you have made. Fewer is nicer, but there is no penalty for taking your time. When a tube is finished it glows in its colour, and every puzzle is freshly shuffled and can always be solved.
Your score is the number of puzzles you’ve solved in the current session. Your best is the longest streak you’ve managed in one sitting, and it starts again when you reload the page.
Tips
- Free up an empty tube first. An empty tube is your most useful tool, so don’t fill both of them with mismatched balls too early.
- Look under the top ball. Before you move a ball, check what is hiding underneath it and plan where that one will go.
- Stack same colours together. Building up pairs and triples of one colour means fewer moves later.
- Use undo to explore. Try a move, see what it opens up and take it back if it doesn’t help.
Why it’s fun
Tube Mix is a calm puzzle with a satisfying finish: the balls arc through the air, drop into place and sparkle when a tube is complete. It’s easy to learn and quick to play, but the harder boards give you plenty to think about.