Cork & Cauldron

The pitch

Cork & Cauldron is a cozy potion brewing puzzle. Every level is an order: the card shows the potion a customer wants and the recipe for it. Pour glowing liquids between flasks to gather each ingredient into a flask of its own. A full flask gets corked: send it to the cauldron, brew the potion by the recipe and pour it back onto the board to fill the order. The recipes keep growing as you play: two-step brews where one potion becomes the ingredient for the next, rainbow essence that stands in for any ingredient, and double orders where you decide what to brew first. The shelves fight back too: murky layers that hide their color, flasks of different sizes, frozen flasks and wax seals. Every order you fill earns stars. Spend them to restore an old potion shop room by room, from the dusty trading hall to the stargazer's attic and the tower at the top. Each order also adds a new potion to your Potion Book, with its own name and a silly one-line story. Fill an order without boosters and you get its golden edition. Features: - 200 levels, a new brewing mechanic every few chapters - 8 rooms to restore and 120 potions to collect - Undo, a hint from the shop's old owl, or an extra flask when you're stuck - Daily gifts and a win streak that pays extra coins - Color symbols mode for color-blind players - Available in 11 languages

Controls & how it runs

Goal: fill each customer's order shown on the recipe card. Pour liquids between flasks, only onto the same color or into an empty flask. A flask filled with one color gets corked and becomes an ingredient. Send the ingredients the recipe asks for to the cauldron, then pour the brewed potion into a flask to complete the order. Controls: - Click (or tap) a flask to pick it up, then click where to pour. - Click a corked ingredient to send it to the cauldron. - When the potion is ready, click the cauldron, then a flask to pour it out. - Undo, Hint and Extra flask buttons help when you're stuck.

Getting a run going takes exactly one press: Press start, up top, and the game boots inside this page — nothing downloads in the background and no form wants your details before the first jump. The cabinet is drawn for a flexible screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for puzzle cabinets

• Count what's missing, not what's there. In matching and logic boards the empty spaces and absent pieces usually draw the shape of the solution for you.
• Solve the corner first. Constrained edges and locked pieces have the fewest options, which makes them the honest starting point of almost every board here.
• If you're stuck, change the order, not the plan. Many boards on this row are the same moves played in a different sequence — the lock was the order all along.

Cork & Cauldron — quick-fire questions

Does Cork & Cauldron cost anything to play?

Not a token. The cabinet is free from the first run to the five-hundredth — no wallet, no sign-up, no toll booth hiding three levels in. The adverts around the page are what keep the floor's lights on.

What sort of game is Cork & Cauldron?

It stands on our Puzzle row — that's the family it plays most like. The pitch above is the publisher's own rundown of what it throws at you and what it hands back.

Can I play Cork & Cauldron on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Cork & Cauldron is an HTML5 game: hit the start button and it boots on this page, and shutting the tab sweeps the cabinet clean behind you.

Before you wander off

Personal best banked, or still chasing it? Either way the full Puzzle row is powered on and waiting — Boards, bubbles and blocked exits: 139 puzzle cabinets for players who like their pressure quiet and their solutions sudden. Think first, tap second, gloat third.