Box Pusher

How to play Box Pusher

Box Pusher is a warehouse puzzle built on the classic push-the-crate mechanic that has entertained players for decades. You control a single warehouse worker on a small grid dotted with walls, loose crates and marked target spots. The job sounds simple: shove every crate onto a target. The catch is that you can only ever push — never pull — so one careless shove can wedge a crate against a wall forever. Every one of the 18 levels here is an original hand-made layout, and each has been verified solvable by a computer solver, so a clean solution always exists. Levels are grouped into Easy, Medium and Hard, and clearing them faster and in fewer moves earns a higher ranked score.

The goal

A level is solved the moment every crate sits on a target spot. It does not matter which crate ends up on which target — the puzzle only checks that no target is left empty and no crate is left off a target. Because the number of crates always equals the number of targets, finishing means every crate is delivered and every target is covered. The board then turns green and your result is scored. There is no time limit and no way to lose outright, but a crate pushed into a bad position can make a level impossible, at which point you simply undo or restart.

The board and the pieces

Each level is a small grid, from about 6×6 up to 10×10. Thick tiles are walls that nothing can pass through. The smiling tile is you, the pusher. Amber-tinted tiles hold crates that still need delivering, and small amber rings mark empty target spots waiting for a crate. When a crate is standing on a target it turns bright green, so at a glance you can always see how many crates are still homeless. The heads-up display counts your moves (every step you take) and your pushes (steps that actually shift a crate), along with a running timer that starts on your first move.

How you move

• The pusher moves one cell at a time in four directions: up, down, left and right. There are no diagonal moves. On a keyboard use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D; on a touch screen swipe across the board or tap the on-screen direction pad.
• Walking into an empty floor cell simply moves you there. Walking into a wall does nothing at all — you stay put and the move is not counted.
• When you step toward a crate, you push it. The crate slides one cell in the same direction, but only if the cell directly beyond it is empty floor (or an empty target). You move into the crate’s old square as it shifts ahead of you.
• You can never push two crates at once. If a crate has another crate right behind it, or a wall right behind it, it will not budge — and neither will you. The move is blocked and nothing changes.
• Every step counts as a move; a step that shifts a crate also counts as a push. Both counters are shown live so you can chase a lean, efficient solution.

The no-pull rule

This is the single most important thing to understand: you can only push, never pull. There is no action that drags a crate toward you. If you stand next to a crate and step away, the crate stays exactly where it was. That means the only way to move a crate in a given direction is to stand on the opposite side of it and walk into it. Before you commit to a push, always look at where the crate will end up two, three or four squares later — because once it is against a wall on the far side, you can no longer get behind it to push it back.

Deadlocks — and how to avoid them

A deadlock is a position from which the level can no longer be solved, even though the game has not ended. The most common deadlock is a crate that is not on a target being pushed into a corner where two walls meet. Once a crate sits in such a corner, you cannot get behind it from either open side, so it is stuck for good. Learning to spot deadlocks before they happen is the real skill of the game. A few rules of thumb:

• Never push a crate into a corner formed by two walls unless that exact corner is a target. A cornered crate can never leave.
• Be careful pushing a crate flat against a wall along a long edge with no target on it: you can slide it along the wall but you can never pull it away, so if it needs to leave that wall later, you are stuck.
• When two crates end up side by side against a wall, or jammed together in a nook, they can block each other permanently. Plan the order in which you deliver crates so earlier ones do not trap later ones.

Winning and scoring

Cover every target and the level is won instantly — the crates glow green and a banner shows your moves, pushes and time, plus your score. Your score is submitted to the leaderboard under the level’s difficulty (Easy, Medium or Hard). Because there is no way to truly lose, the challenge is efficiency: solve the puzzle in as few moves and as little time as you can. If you paint yourself into a corner, the Undo button steps back through your moves one at a time, and Restart returns the level to its starting layout. Both are essential tools, not admissions of defeat — even expert players lean on Undo constantly.

Strategy tips

• Work backwards from each target. Ask which square a crate must come from to land on the target, then which square you must stand on to push it there. Planning the last push first keeps you from delivering a crate the wrong way.
• Deliver the crates that are easiest to trap first, and the ones near open space last. A crate that must travel along a wall or through a tight corridor usually needs to go before crates that could otherwise block its path.
• Keep lanes open. Before you push a crate across the room, make sure you will still be able to walk around to the far side of the other crates you have not delivered yet.
• Count squares before you shove. Since you cannot pull, always check how far a crate will slide and whether you can still reach the pushing side afterwards. One extra square of foresight saves a full restart.
• Use Undo freely to experiment. Try a push, see where it leads, and step back if it creates a deadlock. Reading the consequences a few moves ahead is exactly how the shortest solutions are found.

Frequently asked questions