Rules
Scoring, par and gold letters
Finishing a level earns a letter, and the quality of that letter depends on a single number: your move count compared with the level’s par. This page explains where par comes from, how quality is awarded and how leaderboards compare players.
What counts as a move
Every step Sokko takes counts as a move, whether it pushes a box or simply walks. A pointless detour therefore costs as much as a push. Undoing removes the undone move from the counter; a reset puts it back to zero.
Where par comes from
Every level is solved by the game’s solver before it is offered. That solver, based on the IDA* search algorithm, looks for the solution that needs the fewest possible pushes. The game then replays that solution to count all of its steps, walking included: that total becomes the par.
Two honest caveats. First, the solution is optimal in pushes but not necessarily in moves: an attentive player can sometimes beat par by saving walking steps. Second, if the search exceeds the computing budget allotted to it, par is estimated from the way the grid was built. Either way, par is an achievable benchmark, not a theoretical record.
Gold, silver or bronze
- Gold: no more than 125% of par, rounded up. For a par of 40 moves, you need to finish in 50 moves or fewer.
- Silver: no more than 150% of par. For the same level, 60 moves or fewer.
- Bronze: anything beyond. Finishing a level always earns a letter.
The margin is deliberately generous: gold rewards a clean solve, not absolute perfection. You can always replay a level to improve your letter.
The monthly collection
Earned letters join a monthly collection. It is complete when it covers the whole alphabet of the language being played. The collection starts again every month, giving everyone a fresh chance to complete it whenever they started playing.
Leaderboards
Each Adventure level has a leaderboard. The score used there is the number of moves first; solving time only separates two players who played the same number of moves. A score is recorded only for a player signed in with an account, and only a better result replaces the previous one.
The Daily Challenge has its own daily leaderboard, based on the number of moves. Since every player gets the same grid on the same day, it is the most direct comparison between players. Its streak rules are covered in the Daily Challenge.
Improving your score
Most wasted moves come from Sokko walking between two pushes, not from the pushes themselves. Before moving a box, ask yourself which side Sokko will need to be on for the next one. The advanced strategies develop this idea, and the page on level generation explains how each grid is checked before it is published.