How to win at 2048

2048 looks like a game of luck: the new tiles land wherever they like. But where they can land depends on which cells you leave empty, and where your big tiles sit decides whether they ever meet. Players who win nearly every game all do the same few things. Here they are, in the order they matter.

If you have not played yet, the rules take two minutes.

Pick a corner and keep your biggest tile in it

Choose one corner, say the bottom left, and keep your biggest tile there for the whole game. A big tile in the middle of the board splits it in two: small tiles pile up on both sides of it, and they can never join the tiles that would let it grow.

In a corner, the big tile takes up the least room, blocks nothing, and can only be pushed out by a move you choose to make.

The biggest tile, 256, kept in the bottom-left corner, with the bottom row lined up beside it.

Slide in two directions, a third when you must, never the fourth

With the corner at the bottom left, down and left are the moves that keep the big tile where it is. Use them for almost every move, and alternate between them.

When neither down nor left changes the board, use right. It keeps the big tile in the bottom row as long as that row is full, because a full row cannot slide.

Up is the move to avoid. It lifts the big tile out of its corner, and the new tile usually drops straight into the gap it leaves, where a 2 now blocks your best tile forever. Use it only when nothing else moves.

Keep the corner row full

The bottom row, the one with your big tile in it, is what holds everything in place. While that row is full, a slide right cannot move the corner tile. Once it has a gap, a right slide pulls the big tile out of the corner.

So fill the bottom row early and keep it filled. If a gap does open in it, filling it comes before any other merge.

Build a snake

The tiles in your corner row should shrink as they go away from the corner: 256, 128, 64, 32. Then each merge at the far end sets up the next one, like dominoes falling towards the corner: two 32s make a 64, which merges into the 64 beside it, and so on down to the big tile.

When the bottom row is full, carry on in the row above, back the other way, so the numbers keep shrinking along a path that doubles back on itself: a snake.

A snake: the bottom row falls away from the corner, 512 to 64, and the row above carries on the other way, 32 down to 4. One 32 more and it all folds up towards the corner.

A snake is the one pattern that lets you make 2048 without clearing the board over and over. Every tile you add ends up feeding the corner.

Merge towards the corner, not in the middle

When you have a choice of merges, make the one closest to your snake or the one that feeds it. Merging two small tiles in the open middle of the board feels productive, but the tile you made is now in the wrong place and has to travel to the snake later, usually past tiles it cannot merge with.

The same goes for chasing a merge on the far side of the board: if reaching it means an up move, leave it.

Keep small tiles next to the tiles they will merge with

A 2 or a 4 that lands in the corner row, next to a 64, is stuck there until you clear a path for it. Try to leave empty cells where a new tile does the least harm: away from your snake, on the side opposite your corner. The new tile can only land in an empty cell, so the cells you leave empty are the only say you have in where it goes.

Before a move, look at which cells it will empty. A move that opens a cell in the corner row is a risk, however good the merge it makes.

When the big tile leaves its corner

Sometimes nothing else moves and you have to press up, or a gap in the bottom row lets the big tile slide away. Do not panic, and do not make the next move fast.

The 256 has been pushed up out of its corner, and a 2 dropped into the gap. Sliding down straight away puts the 256 back only if the cell under it is empty; here the 2 is in the way.

If the corner cell is still empty, slide straight back (down or left) and the big tile returns.
If a new tile has taken the corner, build that tile up where it is, until it can merge with something next to it and clear the corner again. This is slow, but it works more often than starting a new corner.
Only if the board is badly broken, move your corner. Pick the one nearest the big tile, and start the snake again from there.

Think one tile ahead

A merge that fills the board is worse than no merge at all. Before each move, count the empty cells it will leave. Three or four empty cells are comfortable; with one or two, every new tile can end the game, so look for the move that opens the most room rather than the one that makes the biggest tile.

Racing a friend

In a race with a friend, both boards get the same tiles, so the difference between you is how you play them.

To a tile: speed matters, but a lost corner costs more time than careful play. For a race to 512 or 1024, the corner and the snake still win; you just have fewer moves to recover from a mistake.
Against the clock: the score counts, not the tile. Make many merges, and make them quickly, but do not risk the corner: a board that jams in the fourth minute ends your race early. If your friend gets stuck, you only need to pass their score, so play safe once you are close.

Beating 2048

Put together: a corner, a full corner row, a snake falling away from it, the fourth direction only when nothing else moves, and new tiles steered to where they do no harm. That is how most winning games are played.

Ready? Play 2048 and try it, or race a friend to 1024 and see who keeps their corner longer.