Tiltrow: Marble Puzzle

Tiltrow is a calm marble puzzle on a small wooden tray. No timer, no rush, and it plays offline.

Move one marble at a time. Line up marbles of one colour and the row clears. A move that clears nothing lets new marbles land. Learnt in a minute; the thinking is in where you leave the gaps.

THREE WAYS TO PLAY

• Journey — 120 levels along a road, in ten chapters. Every level deals the same tray to everyone, limits your moves, and asks you to fill its jars before they run out. Moves to spare keep more of its three stars. Finish a chapter and the world it holds is yours.

• Classic — a 9×9 tray. Tap a marble, then a well it can reach along an open path, and it rolls there; or drag it. Five in a line clears, slants counted, a longer row pays more.

• Jars — the same movement on a 7×7 tray, with something to reach for. A row of four clears and its marbles drop into a jar. Every stage deals a card of three to five jars; fill them all and the stage turns, with a bonus. The card asks for more as you climb, and from stage 6 one well of the rim is sealed for good each stage. The tray closes in, and that is what ends a strong game.

Jars gives you three tools, earned back as you play: Undo, Swap two marbles, and Clear a colour.

RACE YOUR OWN BEST

Classic and Jars have no finish line. Every game runs against your own best on that mode and difficulty. Marks along the tray's edge fill as you close on it, and turn green the moment you pass it.

Three difficulties in Classic and Jars: Easy, Medium and Hard — five, six or seven colours. A Journey level brings its own.

THE DAILY TRAY

One tray a day, the same for everyone. Only your first try counts. Keep a streak, fill the month on a calendar, and share your score as a picture that never shows the board, so it cannot spoil the day.

EIGHT MATERIALS

Ash, pale wood with glass marbles, and Slate, dark stone for night, are yours from the start. Six worlds are earned, each by a different kind of play, and in a world the marbles are seven things:

• Abyss — plankton that make their own light. For twelve Journey levels won.
• Orchard — seven fruits. For ten Daily trays.
• Galaxy — the planets, Mars to Mercury. For thirteen stages in one Jars game.
• Reef — urchin, starfish, coral, jellyfish, anemone. For 90 stars in the Journey.
• Lantern — seven lanterns lit from within. For eighteen stages in one game.
• Onyx — seven gems, each with its own cut. For 1,000 in Classic.

A skin re-themes the whole app: its ground, tray, sounds and marbles. None of it can be bought.

SIX LADDERS TO CLIMB

Lines cleared, Classic score, stages in one game, Daily trays, days in a row, and the stars of each Journey season. Each is struck as a medallion on your statistics page, in brass, silver, gold or obsidian.

LEADERBOARDS, IF YOU WANT THEM

Sign in to Google Play Games and your scores go to a board — one each for Classic, Jars, the Daily tray and the Journey's stars — and your medals appear on your achievements page. It also backs your progress up to your own Google Drive, so it follows you to a new phone.

All optional. Nothing is locked behind it, and every medal shows on your phone whether you sign in or not.

MORE

• Clear on moves in a row for a chain: ×2, then ×3
• Five marble forms, from cat's eye to flat
• Marks on the marbles, so colour is never needed to play
• Less motion: fades instead of rolls
• Show a move: sit still and the tray points at a roll that clears
• Undo as often as you like in Classic, but not on the Daily
• Statistics: your best in every mode, and your all-time totals
• A first game that teaches itself
• English and Bangla
• Sound and vibration, each can be turned off

WHAT IT DOESN'T DO

No ads. No in-app purchases. No analytics, no crash reporting, no tracking of any kind. It asks for no Android permission at all — not even the internet — and you can check that in Android's own settings. No account: sign in only if you want the boards.