🍋 Link Up

🕹️ How to play

1. How to start playing Link Up: The page opens straight onto a dealt 6×5 board — no difficulty menu, no start button. Tap any tile to select it, then tap a second tile with the same picture. If a legal route exists between them the game draws the line and both tiles pop. Board size, the timed variant and the tile theme all live behind the settings button in the bottom bar.
2. What counts as a legal connection: The line runs horizontally and vertically only, never diagonally, and it may not cross any tile still on the board. From the first tile to the second it may turn at most twice — the same rule stated another way is that the line is never more than three straight segments. Segment length does not matter at all; a line can span the whole board. There is also one lane of empty space around the outside of the board that the line may use, which is why edge tiles are usually the easiest.
3. Reading the reason a pair fails: Tap two identical tiles that will not connect and the game says why on the spot. Needs more than two turns: an amber dashed line traces the shortest detour with a dot on every corner, so you can count them yourself. Blocked: the offending tile flashes red. Nothing at all: both tiles wobble and the game suggests clearing around them first. Screen readers get the same explanation announced.
4. What to do when you get stuck: Hint highlights a pair that genuinely connects, and Shuffle re-lays every remaining tile. Both are free, unlimited and cost you no points. If the board really does run out of moves, it reshuffles itself and says so — no penalty, no rewarded ad — and the new layout is guaranteed solvable again. Only a clear finished with zero hints and zero manual shuffles earns the clean-clear badge.

📖 Rules & variants

Link Up (also sold as mahjong connect, onet or shisen-sho) is a tile-matching puzzle: the board is covered in pairs of pictures and you clear it by joining two identical tiles. The catch is the route. It is built from horizontal and vertical segments, never diagonal, it may not pass through any tile still standing, and it may turn at most twice. If turns are confusing, count segments instead: never more than three straight lines. Their length is unlimited.

One lane of empty space wraps the whole board and the route may travel through it, but not through a second lane further out. That is why tiles on the edges and in the corners are almost always the easiest to clear, and why a tile walled in at the centre often has to wait until its neighbours are gone. It also gives you the single most useful tactic in the genre: work the edges first.

The three sizes change the board and the number of distinct pictures, never the rules. Easy is 6 columns × 5 rows, 15 pairs drawn from 6 pictures. Classic is 7 × 8, 28 pairs from 9 pictures. Challenge is 7 × 10, 35 pairs from 12 pictures. A first visit opens on Easy; after that the game remembers the size you played last. Big-tile mode drops one size and enlarges the tiles, which helps on a small phone or when several people are hunting on the same screen.

Every board here is generated backwards: each pair is laid down only after checking that it would genuinely connect on the board as it stood at that moment, so replaying that order in reverse is a complete solution. The board you are dealt can therefore always be cleared. If the tiles that remain ever run out of moves, the game reshuffles automatically — the reshuffle uses the same generator, so the new layout is solvable too, and it costs you no points, no time and no ad.

The timed variant (off by default) refills instead of executing: you start with 90 seconds, every successful pair adds 3 seconds, the clock is capped at 180 seconds and the round settles when it reaches zero. The gravity variant (also off by default) compacts the two affected columns downwards after every match, so the board keeps moving and can no longer promise a route to the end — the automatic reshuffle covers it. Each variant keeps its own best score, so nothing overwrites anything else.

Scoring, so you can check it yourself: base score is pairs cleared × 100. The combo bonus adds (combo − 1) × 20 for each pair, where a combo continues whenever two successful matches land within 3 seconds of each other. The time bonus exists only on a cleared board and equals (total pairs × 6 seconds − your seconds) × 5, floored at zero. Hints and shuffles never cost points; they only decide the clean-clear badge. Accuracy is pairs cleared ÷ judged attempts — tapping two different pictures just moves the selection and is not judged.

Four mistakes beginners keep making: assuming shorter lines are somehow better (length is unlimited, only turns are capped); forgetting the outside lane and hunting for an interior route when the tile could simply go around; scanning the same small patch over and over instead of clearing edges and freshly opened corridors; and tapping the moment you spot a twin rather than counting the turns first.

The daily board is the same for everyone on a given date: the seed comes straight from the calendar day, with no network request involved, so opening the page anywhere gives you the same classic 7×8 layout. The daily round is always untimed, never uses gravity and ignores your other settings. You may replay it as often as you like, but the first result of the day is the one that gets recorded.

❓ FAQ