Sokoban — Free

What is Sokoban?

Sokoban is a warehouse puzzle in which you play a mover whose only job is to push crates into place. Each level is a small maze of walls, open floor and marked goal tiles, and the board always holds exactly as many crates as there are goals. Nudge a crate onto every goal and the level is solved. The name comes from the Japanese word for "warehouse keeper," and since the game first appeared in the early 1980s it has become one of the most respected logic puzzles ever made — simple to learn in a single sentence, yet endlessly deep.

What gives Sokoban its bite is one strict rule: you can only push, never pull, and only one crate at a time. A crate slides just when the square directly beyond it is clear, so a single careless shove can wedge a box against a wall it can never leave. That means every level is really a planning puzzle. You are not reacting under time pressure — you are reading the whole warehouse, working out the order that crates must move, and picturing where the mover has to stand for each push. It is quiet, thoughtful and hugely satisfying, and every level on vygam is hand-built with a guaranteed solution.

How to Play

Pushing is the only way to move a crate, and the rules are deliberately unforgiving. A move is illegal — nothing happens — whenever you try to:

• push a crate into a wall;
• push a crate into another crate;
• push two crates at once (only one moves per push);
• pull a crate toward you — pushing is the only option;
• move diagonally — every step is up, down, left or right.

Sokoban Tips & Strategy

Sokoban rewards patience over speed. A few habits will turn levels that look impossible into puzzles you can unravel one crate at a time.

1. Never bury a crate in a corner

   A crate pushed flat into a corner can never come out, because you cannot pull. Before every push, ask whether the box still has a way to reach its goal. Unless a corner tile is itself a goal, keep crates away from corners and off walls they would need to leave.

2. Plan the order, then the path

   Decide which crate should reach its goal first, then figure out where the mover must stand to push it there. Often one crate blocks the route to another, so solving the far or awkward box first keeps the rest of the warehouse open for you to walk through.

3. Stand on the opposite side

   To send a crate in a direction, the mover has to be on the far side of it. Walk the long way round the board to line up a push instead of shoving a box the moment you meet it. Reaching the right side first is half of every Sokoban puzzle.

4. Undo early and often

   Undo is free and unlimited, so treat it as a thinking tool. If a push feels risky, try it, watch what happens, and step back if it locks a crate in. Reset level wipes the room clean when a plan goes wrong, and your fewest-moves record is always safe.

Sokoban Levels & Difficulty

vygam ships ten hand-designed Sokoban levels that climb steadily in difficulty. The first few rooms hold a single crate and a short push, so you learn the controls and the one golden rule without pressure. From there the warehouses grow: two and three crates appear, interior walls carve the floor into tight corridors, and the order you move the boxes starts to matter as much as the pushes themselves.

By the later levels — rooms like Corner Store, Tight Squeeze and the four-crate Pinwheel — you will be reading the whole board before you touch a key, spotting the corners that would trap a box and mapping the mover's route in advance. Jump around freely with the level selector or the arrow buttons, and pick up any room where you left off. Every level is guaranteed solvable, so if a warehouse looks stuck, the answer is a different order of pushes, not a dead end.

Controls, Undo & Best Scores

You can play Sokoban however suits your device. On a computer the arrow keys move the mover, U or Ctrl+Z undoes, and R resets the current level. On a phone or tablet, use the on-screen d-pad or simply swipe across the board in the direction you want to go. Every control does the same thing: take one careful step, pushing a crate if one stands in the way.

A Moves counter and a Pushes counter track your run so you can chase a cleaner solution, and your fewest-moves finish for each level is saved to your browser as a Best score. Because the record lives in local storage, it stays with you between visits with no account required. Solve a room and the win overlay shows your total moves and whether you set a new personal best; tap Next level to roll straight into the next warehouse and keep the session going.

FAQ

Games like Sokoban