2048: the number puzzle for two

2048, but against someone

You know the game: a 4 × 4 board, a few small numbers, and one rule. Swipe, and every tile slides. When two equal numbers run into each other, they join into one: 2 and 2 make 4, 4 and 4 make 8, and so on, all the way to 2048. It is easy to learn, hard to put down, and much more fun when someone is trying to beat you.

BeatMe’s 2048 is a duel. Send a friend the link and you both get exactly the same tiles in exactly the same order. Play the 3-minute Sprint or a Classic game without a clock, at the same time or one after the other. Whoever scores more points wins.

The rules, with pictures

Every move is a swipe in one of four directions. All the tiles slide that way at once, as far as they can go, and close any gaps.

When the board is full and no two neighbours share a number, no move is left and your game is over. In Sprint, the game also ends when the 3 minutes are up.

How the points add up

Your score starts at 0. Every time two tiles join, the number on the new tile goes on your score: joining two 2s scores 4, two 512s score 1,024. Because every big tile is built from smaller joins, the points grow fast. Building a tile out of 2s alone scores:

New 4s skip a step and score a little less. On the same score, the bigger tile wins the duel.

Sprint or Classic

Sprint gives each of you 3 minutes. The clock starts when you press Start, and every move counts, so speed matters as much as planning. A steady player reaches a 256 or a 512 tile in that time; the clock bar turns red in the last 10 seconds.

Classic has no clock. You play until no move is left, the way the original game works, or stop whenever you like and keep your points. A Classic game can take half an hour or more, so it suits a slow evening duel. Whoever sends the link picks the mode.

Strategy: keep your biggest tile in a corner

Most good players use the same plan: pick a corner and never let the biggest tile leave it. Then line up the next tiles beside it, each one half the one before, so every join feeds the next.

• Use two directions most of the time. With the corner at the top left, swipe left and up. Swipe right when you must, and down only when nothing else works.
• Keep the top row full. A full row cannot shift sideways, so your big tile stays in its corner.
• Build towards the chain. Make the small tiles next to the end of the snake, not out in the open.
• In Sprint, keep a rhythm. Left, up, left, up is fast and safe. Slow down only when the board gets crowded.

Fair for both players

Both players get the same stream of new tiles: the same numbers, in the same order. Play the same moves and you get the same board; play differently, and only where the new tiles land changes, since they always pick among the empty squares. Your board answers instantly on your screen, and the server replays every move by the same rules to work out the score, so a score can’t be made up.

Where 2048 comes from

2048 was written over a weekend by the Italian web developer Gabriele Cirulli and released on 9 March 2014. It was meant as an improved version of 1024, one of several games inspired by the mobile puzzle Threes, which had come out a month earlier. Cirulli put 2048 online for free, as open source, and more than four million people played it in its first week. Countless versions followed. This one is made for two.