Gridlock Puzzles (Puzzleship)
Rate itSlide the cars and trucks aside to get the taxi out of the jam.
on puzzleship.com
Gridlock is a sliding car puzzle in the style of Rush Hour. The taxi needs to reach the exit, every other vehicle is in the way, and each vehicle can only slide along the lane it faces. Each puzzle has a par for the fewest moves.
About Gridlock Puzzles (Puzzleship)
Vehicles slide only forwards and backwards in the direction they point, never sideways and never through one another. Freeing the taxi means unpicking a chain of blockers in the right order, and nothing is hidden: every vehicle is visible from the start, so the puzzle is entirely about sequence.
The sliding car puzzle reached most people through the board game Rush Hour and the phone games after it. Following the chain backwards from the taxi usually finds the one vehicle that must move first. Space matters as much as position, since a long vehicle needs several free cells to shift. A par score shows the shortest solution.
Puzzleship publishes six jams of Gridlock Puzzles a day, graded from very easy to ultra hard. Each day's jams are numbered and dated, the same for every player, and come out at 13:00 UTC, which is midnight in New Zealand; the page says midnight your time, but in Europe and the Americas the new set arrives in the afternoon or morning of the same date. Earlier days stay playable in the archive. Some boards also have fixed cells marked with an X that no vehicle can enter. Solving a jam keeps a daily streak, which an account saves. The site is free with ads, and a premium plan removes them.
How to play Gridlock Puzzles (Puzzleship)
- Open Gridlock Puzzles and pick one of the day's six jams from the difficulty bar above the board.
- Find what blocks the taxi's row, and what blocks those vehicles in turn.
- Drag a vehicle along its own lane to move it; grey X cells are fixed and never move.
- Clear a path and slide the taxi out through the exit on the right.
- Compare your move count with the par shown under the board.
Screenshots
Tips
- Work backwards from the taxi through the chain of blockers.
- Do not fill a gap that a long vehicle will need later.
- If you are over par, look for a vehicle you moved and moved back.
- Sometimes moving a car further than needed opens two lanes at once.
Questions
How many Gridlock Puzzles puzzles are there each day?
Six, graded from very easy to ultra hard.
When do new Gridlock Puzzles puzzles appear?
At 13:00 UTC, midnight in New Zealand. The page says the next set is available at midnight your time, but the day's set is scheduled for 13:00 UTC, so in Europe and the Americas it arrives during the day of its date.
Can I play earlier days?
Yes. Puzzleship keeps past puzzles in an archive, reached from Browse Archives or the date picker.
Is it free?
Yes, with ads. A Puzzleship premium plan removes them, and no account is needed to play.
Ratings and reviews
Games like Gridlock Puzzles (Puzzleship)
Parker (Mind Loft)
The same 6x6 Rush Hour style jam, a red block to slide out, against the fewest moves
Impound (Mind Loft)
A bigger 7x7 sliding-block jam for players who finish Gridlock's hard levels
Junkyard (Mind Loft)
The largest daily sliding-block jam, an 8x8 lot of nearly thirty blocks
Push Puzzles (Puzzleship)
Puzzleship's Sokoban, the other move-the-blocks puzzle on the same site with six daily levels
Carom
One daily 8x8 sliding puzzle: get the target piece to the goal in as few moves as possible
Bloxist (Puzzleship)
Puzzleship's rolling-block puzzle: plan a route with a par, six difficulties a day
Kesto
Slide boxes onto the day's outline, a move-count puzzle about order and space
Arrow Escape (Puzzleship)
Puzzleship's arrow tangle: six graded boards a day out at 13:00 UTC, cleared by sliding pieces out in the…