📦 How to play Sokoban (rules and strategy)
By Miguel Arechaga
Sokoban is a spatial logic puzzle: a handful of very simple rules hide levels that can have you thinking for several minutes before you move a single square. Here's how it works and the strategy to avoid leaving any box stuck with no way out.
What is Sokoban?
Sokoban means "the one who pushes boxes" in Japanese. You control a character inside a warehouse, and your goal is to push all the boxes onto target squares marked on the floor, moving one box at a time and without being able to pull them toward you.
How to play Sokoban step by step
- Move around the board with the arrow keys (↑ ↓ ← →) or by sliding your finger on mobile.
- To move a box, position yourself right behind it and step toward it: you'll push it one square in that direction.
- You can only push, never pull a box toward you.
- The goal is to leave each box on a marked square on the board.
- The level is complete once all the boxes are on their targets.
Strategy: think before you push
The golden rule of Sokoban is that one wrong move can leave a box wedged against a corner or a wall forever, with no way to get it out. Before moving a box, mentally check whether after that push you'll still be able to move it in some direction, or whether it will get trapped.
A very useful technique is to reason "backward": look at where each box needs to end up and figure out what previous move would leave it exactly there, instead of trying to advance blindly from the starting position. That way you avoid pushing a box "because it's there" and then discovering you've blocked the level.
Quick tips to avoid getting stuck
- Avoid pushing a box into a corner unless that corner is precisely its target.
- Solve the boxes with fewer possible routes to their target first; the more flexible ones can wait.
- If the game has an undo function, use it without hesitation the moment you suspect a move has no solution.
- Watch out for narrow corridors: they're often the spot where a misplaced box cuts off the path for the others.
Sokoban rewards planning over speed, so take your time: every level solved without undoing a single move is a small victory of pure logic.
🏆 Best solves ranking
Sokoban has its own global ranking: your best solve of each level, with fewer moves, is saved. Go to Ranking, the 🕹️ 1 Player tab, choose "Sokoban" from the dropdown, and compare your score with other players, synced to your account. For your result to count you need a free account on MundoSudoku (just a username and password, no email required): you can play without one, but without logging in your score won't be saved to the ranking.
