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--Spoiler alert-- Someone revealed in that thread that you should never move down. I tried moving only up, left, and right and won easily, so the strategy is

--Spoiler alert-- Someone revealed in that thread that you should never move down. I tried moving only up, left, and right and won easily, so the strategy is solid.

lotharbot 13y ago
The basic heuristic I use (playing as a human, win rate around 75%, and I've had 4096-2048-1024 on the same board before): Pick a corner for the highest tile (for me: upper left). Try to keep the next highest tiles in line with it (I choose the top row). Never push the opposite direction from that (down), and only push the other "off" direction (right) if that row is full so the highest tile will stay put, or if it's the only move remaining. Try to build a "snake" with numbers in descending order, and compress it down to a single tile whenever that becomes possible. From there, it's just little tricks -- learning when you can untrap a lower tile, or when to hold off on a move in order to set up a better one -- that bring up the win rate by a few percent here and there.
- jnazario 13y ago
  spot tested these strategies, they help. when i deviated from it in a fit of panic i lost. similarly, i also find that keeping the small tiles accessible - outside - helps tremendously. if you never move down you get that for free, because you never make open space on top for a 2 to come in (and not combine with your 512 or whatever).
  - lotharbot 13y ago
    "Don't panic" is also a good strategy. If you get into a situation you don't understand, take your hand off the keyboard and think before you move.
solve 13y ago
Isn't that equivalent to never moving up? That's what I do.
- Houshalter 13y ago
  The board is symmetrical so it should be.
- einhverfr 13y ago
  Indeed, you can also never move left, or never move right. And if you have to move this way you can rotate 90 degrees the forbidden direction if you must.
einhverfr 13y ago
True, for any arbitrary value of "down." I.e. normally you should have three allowed directions and one forbidden one. For me the forbidden one starts out as always up. Note that in game play if you have to you can change the forbidden direction.

--Spoiler alert-- Someone revealed in that thread that you should never move down. I tried moving only up, left, and right and won easily, so the strategy is solid.

lotharbot 13y ago

The basic heuristic I use (playing as a human, win rate around 75%, and I've had 4096-2048-1024 on the same board before): Pick a corner for the highest tile (for me: upper left). Try to keep the next highest tiles in line with it (I choose the top row). Never push the opposite direction from that (down), and only push the other "off" direction (right) if that row is full so the highest tile will stay put, or if it's the only move remaining. Try to build a "snake" with numbers in descending order, and compress it down to a single tile whenever that becomes possible. From there, it's just little tricks -- learning when you can untrap a lower tile, or when to hold off on a move in order to set up a better one -- that bring up the win rate by a few percent here and there.

jnazario 13y ago
spot tested these strategies, they help. when i deviated from it in a fit of panic i lost. similarly, i also find that keeping the small tiles accessible - outside - helps tremendously. if you never move down you get that for free, because you never make open space on top for a 2 to come in (and not combine with your 512 or whatever).
- lotharbot 13y ago
  "Don't panic" is also a good strategy. If you get into a situation you don't understand, take your hand off the keyboard and think before you move.

solve 13y ago

Isn't that equivalent to never moving up? That's what I do.

Houshalter 13y ago
The board is symmetrical so it should be.
einhverfr 13y ago
Indeed, you can also never move left, or never move right. And if you have to move this way you can rotate 90 degrees the forbidden direction if you must.

einhverfr 13y ago

True, for any arbitrary value of "down." I.e. normally you should have three allowed directions and one forbidden one. For me the forbidden one starts out as always up. Note that in game play if you have to you can change the forbidden direction.