What is Ice Slide Puzzle?
Ice Slide Puzzle is a sliding ice maze: one push sends a snowball gliding until something stops it, and you have to steer it to a glowing cave exit. It is the classic ice cave puzzle from old role playing games, turned into 40 hand picked levels.
The catch is that you can never stop exactly where you want. The exit may be in plain sight, but without a rock to stop you in front of it you sail right past. So you work backwards and ask where you need to bump into something before you can turn. Boards grow from 5×5 to 10×10, and a new device is added every few levels.
How does movement on the ice work?
Pick up, down, left or right and the snowball slides in one go until it stands right in front of a rock, the board edge, a locked door or an ice block. The only way to stop in the middle of open ice is to land on a rough snow patch.
| You run into | What happens |
|---|---|
| A snowy rock or the board edge | You stop on the cell just before it |
| Rough snow | You stop dead on that cell |
| A hole | Splash, and that move is undone |
| The glowing cave mouth | Level complete the moment you enter |
| A direction that is blocked | Nothing moves and no move is counted |
The small white arrows around the snowball only point in the directions you can actually move right now.
Which devices appear on the board?
Beyond rocks and holes you meet keys and doors, ice blocks, arrow tiles, teleporters and cracked ice, one at a time. The first level with a new device shows a short tip at the bottom of the screen.
| Device | Rule | First level |
|---|---|---|
| Rough snow | You stop on it | 5 |
| Hole | Falling in cancels the move | 8 |
| Key and door | Grab keys as you slide over them. With a key, a door opens and you glide straight through | 11 |
| Ice block | You stop and the block slides on in the same direction. If it drops into a hole it fills it and becomes floor | 15 |
| Arrow tile | Turns you to face its arrow and you keep sliding | 19 |
| Teleporter | Warps you to the swirl of the same color and you keep sliding the same way | 23 |
| Cracked ice | Breaks into a hole after you cross it twice | 27 |
Levels 31 to 40 mix two or three of these devices on the same board.
How do I earn three stars?
Reach the exit in exactly the fewest possible moves for three stars, a few moves more for two, and any finish at all for one. The panel at the top always shows your moves next to the level's best.
Every level was searched move by move with a breadth first solver, so the target really cannot be beaten. Two stars allow the best plus 2 moves or plus 35 percent, whichever is larger. Your stars and fewest moves stay on the level select screen.
What if I get stuck?
Use undo (↶) to take back moves one at a time, hint (💡) to see the next move, and restart (⟲) to begin the level again. Undo and restart are unlimited.
- Hint: works out the fastest way to the exit from where you are now and draws your next slide as a golden dotted line. Hints never cost stars.
- A jammed block: push an ice block into a corner or fill the wrong hole and the level can become impossible. If the hint says there is no way out, press undo.
- Falling into a hole: nothing to do. With a splash the snowball pops back where it was and the move is not counted.
Tips for solving ice puzzles
- Work backwards from the exit. To slide into the exit you must stand somewhere in line with it, and to stand there something has to stop you on the far side.
- Find the cells where you can stop. Only cells next to rocks and rough snow patches are resting spots. Link those and the route appears.
- Blocks make good stoppers. Besides filling holes, a block parked in the right place gives you a new spot to stop on your next slide.
- Count your crossings on cracked ice. Cross it twice and the path is gone, so save those crossings for the bridge you really need.
- Three stars never doubles back. Finish once, then look for any cell you crossed twice. That is usually where a move can be cut.
Controls
- Phone or tablet: swipe in the direction you want to slide. A short tap moves toward the spot you touched as seen from the snowball, so tapping near the screen edges works too.
- Mouse: drag to swipe, or click above, below, left or right of the snowball.
- Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD to move, Z or Backspace undo, H hint, R restart, Esc level select, Enter for the next level on the result screen.
Every one of the 40 levels was solved to the end by a solver to confirm its fewest moves. Stars and records stay in this browser and are never sent to a server. The first three levels are open from the start, and each later level opens once you clear any of the three before it.