How to Play Tinker
Tinker is a command-queue programming puzzle game. You write a short program for a robot by selecting instructions from the palette and placing them into numbered slots. When you press RUN, the robot executes your program one step at a time — moving, turning, jumping, picking up gems, and navigating toward the exit tile. If the robot hits a wall, falls into a gap, or exhausts your program without reaching the exit, a message names exactly what went wrong; RETRY reloads the level and clears the slot row, so you re-enter the program with what you just learned.
The instruction palette shows all available commands. Click or tap a command tile to select it — it highlights in cyan — then click or tap a numbered slot in the program row to place it. Click a filled slot without selecting a command to clear it. Your program executes left to right through the slots; empty slots are skipped. The active slot lights up in green during execution so you can follow the robot's logic step by step.
Each level defines a slot cap — it is simply how many slot boxes the level gives you, and the status line beside the buttons keeps a live count of how many you have filled against the 3-star target. Using fewer slots earns more stars: a perfect 3-star solution uses the minimum number of instructions the puzzle requires. Stars convert to coins that spend in the shop to unlock advanced instructions and additional program slots. The LEVELS screen — on the menu and after any run — lets you replay any unlocked level to raise its star rating, and replays pay out the coin difference whenever you beat your previous record.
A seeded Daily Challenge is also available from the menu: every UTC day, the date picks one level from the full catalogue and tightens its slot cap, so all players worldwide solve the same variant. The tightened cap never drops below the level's optimal solution, so the daily is always winnable. The full instruction palette is temporarily unlocked during the daily, and completing it earns a 200-point bonus on the standard leaderboard.
Instructions and Mechanics
Six core instructions carry the entire campaign — later worlds add no new commands, only harder arrangements of the same tiles: MOVE advances the robot one tile forward in its current direction; LEFT and RIGHT rotate it 90 degrees without moving; JUMP leaps two tiles forward (over one tile, useful for crossing gaps); PICKUP grabs a crate from the tile directly ahead of the robot — you face a crate and reach for it, never stand on it; PLACE sets the carried crate down on the tile directly ahead, onto open floor, onto a pressure plate, or into a gap. A seventh instruction, WAIT, holds the robot in place for one step.
Tile types define the puzzle structure. Floor tiles are safe to walk on. Wall tiles block movement — the robot fails immediately if instructed to walk into one. Gap tiles are open pits: a MOVE into a gap causes the robot to fall and fail, but JUMP can cross a single-tile gap. JUMP clears gaps and crates only — it cannot leap over walls or locked doors, and landing in a gap or on a locked door fails the run. Gem tiles must all be collected before the robot can exit. Crate tiles are solid and block both movement and jump landings; face one and use PICKUP to carry it, then PLACE to set it down ahead — dropping a crate into a gap fills the pit and turns it into walkable floor. Exit tiles end the level successfully when the robot steps onto them with zero gems remaining.
World 2 introduces pressure plates and locked doors. A pressure plate tile requires a crate to be placed on it, which unlocks its paired locked door. Plan your sequence carefully — each plate consumes the crate placed on it, doors sit between the robot and the exit, and the later levels chain two crate-and-plate pairs with gems and gaps in between. These multi-step mechanics make World 2's puzzles significantly deeper than the linear tutorial levels of World 1.
Five worlds run from tutorial to expert, and each one is built around a different idea rather than a new button. TUTORIAL teaches the palette one command at a time. WORKSHOP is crates, plates and doors. FOUNDRY is routing under pressure: gems, pits and jumps with no plates at all, where the lesson is that JUMP covers two tiles for a single slot and collects the gem it lands on, so the shortest program is rarely the one that walks. VAULT is locked doors at scale — a plate need not sit anywhere near the door it opens, so you have to read the level instead of assuming the next tile along. REACTOR is about which tool to spend where: a crate can bridge a pit or hold a plate down, never both, and JUMP clears a single pit or crate but never two in a row, so committing your only crate to the wrong job strands the run.
Every level in the game has been solved end to end against the live rules in a program of exactly its stated optimal length, so a 3-star rating is always reachable and no puzzle can be an impossible layout. If you are stuck, the constraint is the arrangement, not the level.
Stars and the Shop
Every solved level rewards one to three stars based on instruction efficiency. The star formula is straightforward: 3 stars for the optimal solution (minimum instructions), 2 stars for up to two instructions beyond optimal, 1 star for any working solution. Stars translate to coins at ten coins per star. Coins persist across browser sessions and fund upgrades at the shop. The shop lets you purchase the JUMP instruction outright, the PICKUP and PLACE pair, and slot expansions that raise your program capacity to 12 and then 16 slots — and once purchased, the larger capacity applies on every level whose own cap is lower. The late levels already hand you up to 16 slots without buying anything, so the expansions pay off most on the tight early boards, where a level's own cap can be as low as four. No level's optimal solution runs longer than 14 instructions.
The leaderboard tracks your total accumulated score across all solved levels. Each level awards 100 points multiplied by your star rating, so a 3-star solve yields 300 points and a 1-star solve yields 100. Aim for 3-star completions across all five worlds for a maximum score, and keep the leaderboard in mind when attempting to optimize a solution you solved with 2 stars — often one instruction can be eliminated by rethinking the approach direction.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I place instructions in Tinker?
There is no drag-and-drop. Click an instruction tile in the palette to select it — it highlights in cyan — then click the numbered program slot where you want to place it. Click an occupied slot without selecting an instruction to clear it. On mobile, tap a palette tile first, then tap the destination slot. You can also right-click any slot to clear it instantly on desktop. The whole editor is keyboard-reachable: Tab moves between palette tiles and slots, Enter or Space selects and places, and Delete or Backspace clears the focused slot.
What happens when the robot runs out of program slots?
If the robot reaches the last filled slot without solving the puzzle, you see a "Program ended — robot not at exit!" failure message and the run stops. RETRY reloads the level from scratch — the robot returns to its starting position and direction and the slot row is emptied — so you re-enter the program rather than editing the failed one, which is a good reason to plan the whole sequence before pressing RUN. Consider whether you need more instructions (the shop sells extra slots) or whether the same instructions in a different order would solve the puzzle.
What is the JUMP instruction for in Tinker?
JUMP moves the robot two tiles forward in its current direction, leaping over the tile immediately ahead. Use it to cross gap tiles — open pits that cause an instant failure on a regular MOVE. JUMP can clear a gap or a crate but not a wall or a locked door, and the run fails if the robot lands on a wall, a crate, a locked door, or in a gap. It still collects any gem on the landing tile automatically. JUMP must be purchased from the shop for 20 coins before it appears in the palette, except during the Daily Challenge where the full palette is temporarily available.
How do stars and coins work in Tinker?
Stars rate your efficiency: 3 stars means you used the fewest possible instructions (the optimal solution), 2 stars means up to two extra instructions beyond optimal, and 1 star means any working solution. Each star earns 10 coins, and replaying a level pays out only the difference when you beat your previous star record. Coins persist across all browser sessions and spend in the shop to unlock JUMP (20c), PICKUP and PLACE (30c together), 4 additional slots (40c), and 4 more slots beyond that (60c). Slot upgrades apply on every level once purchased.
How does PICKUP and PLACE work for crate puzzles?
PICKUP grabs a crate from the tile the robot is facing — you never stand on a crate, you reach ahead for it. PLACE sets the carried crate down on the tile ahead: on open floor it becomes an obstacle you can pick up again, dropped into a gap it fills the pit and becomes walkable floor, and pressed onto a pressure plate it locks in and opens the paired door. To bridge a gap: face the crate, PICKUP, MOVE beside the gap, then PLACE. This is taught in World 1 Level 5 and drives every World 2 puzzle. PICKUP and PLACE are purchased together from the shop for 30 coins and both appear in the palette immediately.
How does the Daily Challenge work in Tinker?
Every UTC day the DAILY button on the menu loads the same seeded challenge for all players: the date picks one level from the whole catalogue — any world, not just the tutorial ones — and tightens its slot cap by one or two, so you solve a familiar layout with fewer instructions than usual. The tightened cap is never allowed below that level's optimal solution, so the daily is always solvable. The full instruction palette — including JUMP, PICKUP, and PLACE — is temporarily available during the daily even if you have not bought them yet, and the palette order is shuffled by the day's seed. Completing it adds your level score plus a 200-point daily bonus to the standard leaderboard score, and the menu button shows a check mark once today's challenge is done.
What does each world in Tinker teach?
Five worlds run from tutorial to expert, and none of them adds a new command — the difficulty comes from the arrangement. TUTORIAL introduces the palette one instruction at a time. WORKSHOP is crates, pressure plates and locked doors. FOUNDRY drops plates entirely and is about routing: gems, pits and jumps, where JUMP covers two tiles for one slot and collects the gem it lands on, so walking is usually the wrong answer. VAULT scales up locked doors — a plate can sit nowhere near the door it opens, so you have to read the layout rather than assume the next tile along. REACTOR is about spending your tools correctly: a crate can bridge a pit or hold a plate down but never both, and JUMP clears one pit or crate but never two in a row.
Are all Tinker levels solvable?
Yes, and it is verified rather than assumed. Every level ships with a recorded solution that was executed against the live game rules — the same MOVE, JUMP, PICKUP and PLACE logic the browser runs — in a program of exactly the level's stated optimal length, earning 3 stars. That means no puzzle is an impossible layout, the 3-star rating is always reachable, and the Daily Challenge's tightened slot cap still leaves room for a winning program. If a level has you stuck, the constraint is the ordering of your instructions, not the level itself.
