How to beat 2048: the corner strategy

Random swiping gets you to 256 or 512. A simple, consistent system gets you to 2048 most games.

Step 1: choose a corner

Pick one corner – most players use the bottom left or top left – and decide that your largest tile will live there for the whole game.

Step 2: use only three directions

If your corner is bottom left, use Down and Left most of the time, Right when you must, and avoid Up. Pressing Up lets a small tile slide under your big one and pushes it out of the corner.

Step 3: keep the edge row full

Once the bottom row has four tiles, pressing Left or Right cannot move it sideways, so your corner tile stays anchored. Refill the row quickly whenever a merge opens a gap.

Step 4: build a snake chain

Arrange tiles in descending order along the bottom row, then continue along the row above in the opposite direction, like a snake: 1024 – 512 – 256 – 128, then 64 – 32 – 16 – 8 above. When the smallest end merges, the merges cascade down the chain into the corner.

Step 5: think about the new tile

After each move, a new tile appears in a random empty cell: a 2 nine times out of ten, otherwise a 4. Before moving, picture where empty cells will be. Avoid moves that leave a single empty cell inside your chain.

When things go wrong

• If you are forced to press Up, press Down straight after to put a tile back in the corner as soon as possible.
• If a 2 lands in the corner, work to merge it upward rather than rebuilding everything.
• Use the one-step Undo in this game to learn from mistakes, then try to play a game without it.

Milestones

With the corner method, 2048 is reachable in most games. 4096 requires discipline on the second row. 8192 is an excellent result and needs very careful planning near the end, when space runs out.

Ready? Play 2048 now.