What are the rules of the Box Pushing Puzzle?
You walk a keeper around a room of walls, boxes and targets. Walking into a box pushes it one square, as long as the square behind it is free. You can only push, never pull, and only one box at a time. The level is done when every box sits on a target. Each of the 20 levels here is the site's own.
Move with the arrow keys or W, A, S and D, by swiping on the room, or with the pad under it. Undo, or Z on a keyboard, takes back a move; Start over resets the level. Levels go from 10 moves at their shortest to 90, and you can pick any of them.
How do you solve a Box Pushing level?
- Never push a box into a corner unless the corner is a target. Nothing can get behind it to push it out again.
- Watch boxes against a wall. A box pushed against a wall can only slide along it, so it needs a target somewhere on that wall.
- Don't park two boxes side by side on a wall. To push either one, the keeper would have to stand in the wall or in the other box, so both are stuck for good.
- Plan the order. Fill the targets farthest from where boxes come in first, so the early boxes don't block the later ones.
How is your Box Pushing Puzzle result calculated?
Your result is the number of moves the keeper made, every step counted whether it pushed a box or not, set against the fewest moves the level can be solved in. An undone move doesn't count, so undo freely. Your pushes and your time are shown beside it.
What does my Box Pushing rating mean?
The rating compares your moves with the level's fewest, so it needs no averages: exactly the fewest is Perfect, up to 15% more is Excellent, up to 35% more is Good, and up to 80% more is Fair. For every level:
| Level (moves) | Perfect | Excellent | Good | Fair | Keep trying |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 10 | 11 | 12–13 | 14–18 | 19+ |
| Level 2 | 14 | 15–16 | 17–18 | 19–25 | 26+ |
| Level 3 | 18 | 19–20 | 21–24 | 25–32 | 33+ |
| Level 4 | 23 | 24–26 | 27–31 | 32–41 | 42+ |
| Level 5 | 27 | 28–31 | 32–36 | 37–48 | 49+ |
| Level 6 | 31 | 32–35 | 36–41 | 42–55 | 56+ |
| Level 7 | 35 | 36–40 | 41–47 | 48–63 | 64+ |
| Level 8 | 39 | 40–44 | 45–52 | 53–70 | 71+ |
| Level 9 | 44 | 45–50 | 51–59 | 60–79 | 80+ |
| Level 10 | 48 | 49–55 | 56–64 | 65–86 | 87+ |
| Level 11 | 52 | 53–59 | 60–70 | 71–93 | 94+ |
| Level 12 | 56 | 57–64 | 65–75 | 76–100 | 101+ |
| Level 13 | 61 | 62–70 | 71–82 | 83–109 | 110+ |
| Level 14 | 65 | 66–74 | 75–87 | 88–117 | 118+ |
| Level 15 | 69 | 70–79 | 80–93 | 94–124 | 125+ |
| Level 16 | 74 | 75–85 | 86–99 | 100–133 | 134+ |
| Level 17 | 77 | 78–88 | 89–103 | 104–138 | 139+ |
| Level 18 | 79 | 80–90 | 91–106 | 107–142 | 143+ |
| Level 19 | 87 | 88–100 | 101–117 | 118–156 | 157+ |
| Level 20 | 90 | 91–103 | 104–121 | 122–162 | 163+ |
How is the fewest number of moves known?
Each level was built backwards. A random room was made, its boxes set on their targets, and a search run from the solved position pulling boxes instead of pushing them, one step at a time, until it reached the position farthest from solved. That became the level, so its fewest moves is exact. The site's tests solve every level forwards with a separate search, trying every sequence of moves in order of length, and get the same number.
Is this Sokoban?
It follows the rules of Sokoban, Japanese for “warehouse keeper”, the game Hiroyuki Imabayashi made and Thinking Rabbit first sold in Japan in 1982. Sokoban is a registered trademark, now held by Falcon Co., Ltd., so this page uses a plain name, and the levels are this site's own. For more puzzles about moving things in a tight space, try Traffic Jam or the Sliding Puzzle.