Daily Stone Merge

Daily Stone Merge is the daily mode of Number Merge, a 2048-style sliding game on the small browser site Hitoiki Games. The board is 4x4, and two of its squares hold grey stones. Stones never move, and tiles cannot slide across them or merge through them, so each row and column is split into short sections.

The goal is a score, not a tile. Each merge adds the value of the new tile to your total: two 2s give 4 points, two 4s give 8. Reach 96 points within 24 moves and the day is won, even on the 24th move. Only a move that changes the board counts, and after each one a 2 or a 4 appears in an empty square.

A new challenge arrives at 00:00 UTC. Everyone starting that day's puzzle gets the same opening board and the same sequence of new numbers, though the squares they land on depend on your moves. A Retry this challenge button takes you back to the day's start as many times as you want.

The game plays with the arrow keys, a swipe or the on-screen arrows, and saves your attempt in the browser. It has no accounts, ads or payments and no public leaderboard; a Share result button copies your day's score and moves. It can be played in English, Japanese, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. It suits players who like 2048 but want a short goal with a fixed number of moves, and the stones make each day's board play differently.