Controls

You play by making jumps. Tap a peg, or click it with a mouse on a laptop, then tap or click the empty hole two spaces away, over a neighboring peg, and it hops there while the jumped peg is removed.

The rules of a jump are strict and simple:

• A jump moves a peg straight over one adjacent peg into an empty hole directly beyond it. Jumps run horizontally and vertically only, never diagonally.
• The jumped peg is removed from the board. Since every move takes exactly one peg away, the board slowly empties toward your final peg.

You win by removing every peg but one, and the classic perfect finish leaves that last peg in the center hole.

If a jump backfires, Undo steps back one move at a time, so you can rethink a stretch of the board without restarting the whole game.

Tips

• Work toward the center, not away from it. Pegs pushed out to the arms of the board get stranded easily, so aiming your jumps to keep pegs near the middle leaves you more options late in the puzzle.
• Avoid leaving isolated pegs. A peg with no neighbor to jump or be jumped is stuck for good, so before each move, check that you are not marooning a peg in a corner.
• Clear the arms early. The outer sections of a cross board are the hardest to empty at the end, so removing those pegs while you still have support around them prevents a dead end.
• Think two jumps ahead. A jump that looks good now can leave a peg unreachable next turn, so picturing the board after your move helps you avoid traps you cannot undo.
• Set up chains of jumps. Positioning pegs so one jump lands where it can immediately jump again lets you clear several pegs efficiently and keep the board connected.
• Restart without frustration. Getting stuck with a few scattered pegs is normal even for experienced players, so treat a stall as information about what to do differently next time.

Frequently asked questions