Sokoban
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About This Game
Play Sokoban free online. Push every box onto its target to clear the level. The classic box-pushing puzzle with dozens of levels.
How to play Sokoban
Objective: Push every orange box onto a green target dot; when all boxes sit on targets at once, the level is solved.
You control the cyan circle on a grid of gray walls and dark floor. Move one square at a time with the arrow keys, WASD, the on-screen D-pad, or a swipe on touch screens (a swipe under 20 pixels is ignored). Each grid holds one or more orange boxes and an equal number of green target dots, and the level clears the instant every box occupies a target.
You can only push boxes, never pull them. Walking into a box shoves it one square in the direction you are moving, but only if the square behind it is empty floor. If a wall or a second box sits directly behind it, nothing moves. This single rule is the whole puzzle: a box shoved into a corner or flat against a wall can often never come back out.
A box turns green the moment it lands on a target and orange again if you push it off. The move counter climbs with every step, so a lower count means a cleaner solution. Undo reverses your last move and remembers up to 100 moves; Restart resets the level. There are seven levels of rising size, and your highest Cleared level is saved in your browser.
Tips and strategy
Never push into a corner
A box shoved against two walls forming a corner can never be moved again, unless that exact corner is a target. Before every push, check the square behind the box. A box flush against a straight wall is also stuck sideways along it.
Plan your standing square
To push a box a given way, you must first stand on the opposite side of it. In these tight rooms, walls often block the side you need, so confirm which faces of each box are reachable before you shove.
Solve trapped boxes first
When a room has interior walls, some boxes have only one viable route to their target. Move those constrained boxes early while the floor is open, then handle boxes that can reach a target from several directions.
Undo instead of restart
Undo steps back up to 100 moves and keeps your progress, so use it the instant a push looks wrong. Restart is only worth it once a box is already dead-cornered beyond recovery.
Aim for fewer pushes
The header counts every step. Once you can clear a level, replay it and hunt for a shorter path by cutting wasted walking and pushing each box straight to its target in one run.
The history of Sokoban
Sokoban, Japanese for warehouse keeper, was created by Hiroyuki Imabayashi and first published in the early 1980s by the company Thinking Rabbit. The idea of pushing crates into their storage spots proved so durable that it spawned many sequels and thousands of fan-made level sets. It is also a favorite in computer science, since deciding whether a level can be solved is computationally very hard.
Frequently asked questions
How many Sokoban levels are there?
Seven. They start tiny, with one box beside one target, and grow into larger rooms with more boxes and interior walls. After you clear the seventh, the Next Level button loops you back to level one.
Can I pull a box or only push it?
You can only push. Walking into a box moves it one square ahead of you, and only when the square behind it is empty floor. You cannot drag a box back, which is why a box pushed into a wall or corner can become permanently stuck.
Is my Sokoban progress saved?
Your highest cleared level is saved in your own browser as the Cleared count in the header, so it carries over between visits on the same device. Your position within an unfinished level is not saved; leaving mid-level starts that level over.
What do the colors mean?
The cyan circle is you. Orange squares are boxes not yet placed, turning green once pushed onto a target. Small green dots mark empty targets waiting for a box, and solid gray blocks are walls that neither you nor the boxes can pass through. There is no timer or score beyond the move counter.