HOW TO BEAT 2048
5 SIMPLE RULES FOR MASTERING THIS INCREDIBLY ADDICTIVE GAME
Whenever I have a little bit of time to kill, I reach straight for my iPhone to play 2048, a numbercrunching puzzler the likes of Candy Crush (free) and Threes ($1.99). If you're one of the many people familiar with the game, you know just how addictive it can be; if you're not, well, brace yourself—this game will likely consume your life. Don't believe me? I have a colleague who had to stop playing because he was starting to develop carpal tunnel.
The premise of the game is simple: swipe up, down, left, or right to combine matching numbered tiles until you get to the elusive 2048 tile. With each move you make, a new numbered tile will be introduced to the mix (either a 2 or a 4). You can combine any two of the same tiles to form one larger tile. For example, if you have two tiles, each with a 2 on it, you can combine them into a 4. Once you reach the 2048 tile, you've technically won the game, but that doesn't have to be the end. From there you can try to reach the 4096 tile and so on.
Although 2048 is easy to learn, it takes effort to master. I have labored for many hours in an attempt to develop a few hacks for successfully reaching the 2048 tile. By following these simple rules I'm sharing with you, you'll be a champion in no time!
RULE # 1 – FILL UP THE BOX TO START
Start the game by swiping left and right repeatedly until the box is full of numbered tiles. Once it's full, you can start combining tiles to create larger numbers.
This is the most efficient way to quickly build highnumbered tiles. While you lose the game if you fill up the board and can't make any moves, at this early stage in the game, there is very little risk of this happening.