How to play Klotski
Play Klotski (Huarong Dao) online: slide the generals and soldiers on a 4 × 5 board to clear a way for Cao Cao, the big 2 × 2 piece, to escape through the exit at the bottom. Twenty levels from 3 to 93 steps, including the classic Heng Dao Li Ma (81 steps at best); each level shows its fewest steps, with undo, hints and your progress saved. Free, no ads.
- Controls
- Drag a piece into the empty space (on a computer you can also click a piece and use the arrow keys); pick a level from the list
- Features
- Your steps, the level’s fewest steps and your best; a hint for the next step of a shortest way; undo; progress saved
- Processing
- Runs in your browser, the computer player included; nothing is uploaded
- Pick a level from the list; the classic Heng Dao Li Ma is the one shown first.
- Drag pieces into the empty space; moving the same piece again right away, even round a corner, counts as one step.
- Bring Cao Cao (the 2 × 2 piece) to the exit in the middle of the bottom edge to win. Stuck? A hint shows which piece to move next on a shortest way out.
FAQ
How many steps does Heng Dao Li Ma take?
81 at best. Steps count the classic way: moving one piece, however far and round however many corners, is one step. Every level’s fewest steps were found by the game’s own breadth-first search.
Where do the hints come from?
Each time you ask, the game searches for the shortest way from your position to the exit and shows its first step: which piece to move, and where to (marked on the board).
How were the levels chosen?
All twenty use the classic pieces: Cao Cao, Guan Yu, four generals and four soldiers. Heng Dao Li Ma, Zhi Hui Ruo Ding and Qi Tou Bing Jin are traditional layouts; the others were picked from the 25,955 positions reachable from Heng Dao Li Ma, by their distance from the exit.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. The level and the position you reached stay in this browser, so you can close the page and carry on later, and your best for each level is kept.