2048 Fun mode tips: when a slide runs round the cube

Fun mode changes the one thing every 2048 player does without thinking: the slide. In Evolved 2048, the 2048 puzzle on a cube with six faces of nine squares, 54 in all, a slide normally moves the tiles on the front face. In Fun mode one slide runs a whole column or row round the cube. These 2048 Fun mode tips come from one-slide tests on the live game, so you can see what a slide reaches and what it leaves alone.

What Fun mode changes in 2048

When you start a game, a box titled "Pick a mode" offers three choices: Evolved, Edge and Fun. The Fun choice reads: "A slide runs each row or column all the way round the cube: up or down over front, top, back and bottom; left or right over front, sides and back. Equal tiles along it merge, and the tiles pile up on the front."

So in Fun mode the front face is where tiles end up, but it is no longer the only place a slide looks. A tile on the back face can merge with a tile on the front with no twist and no turn.

Fun mode, before the slide: a 4 on the front's middle square and a 4 on the top face, in the same column.

What one slide reaches and what it leaves alone

Each test below was one slide on a set-up board, in a fresh browser signed out, at 1280 by 800. I put the tiles where I wanted them, pressed one arrow key and read the board back. One game each, so treat them as examples of the rule, not as averages.

• Top face and front, slide up: a 4 on the front's middle square and a 4 on the top face's middle square merged into an 8 on the front's top middle (Score 8, Moves 1).
• Bottom face and front, slide down: the same pair with the 4 on the bottom face merged into an 8 on the front's bottom middle.
• Back face and front, any direction: a 4 on the back's middle square and a 4 on the front's middle square merged on all four slides, up, down, left and right, each time into an 8 (Score 8).
• Side faces, left or right: a 4 on the right face's middle square merged with the front's middle 4 on a right slide, and a 4 on the left face's middle square merged on a left slide.

After each slide the game added one new tile on the front. In these tests it was a 2 each time.

After one slide up: an 8 on the front's top middle, Score 8, Moves 1, and a new 2 on the front.

The ring is one column or one row, not the whole cube. Two tests showed the edges of it:

• A 4 on the right face's middle square and a 4 on the front's middle square, slide up: nothing merged (Score 0). The right-face 4 stayed where it was, because up and down only run the column you are in.
• A 4 on the back face's corner square and a 4 on the front's middle square, slide up: nothing merged. Both 4s ended side by side on the front's top row, because they sat in different columns.

After a slide up with a 4 on the front and a 4 on the right face: Score 0, and the right-face 4 has not moved.

2048 Fun mode tips: line equal tiles up in one column or row

Tip 1 is to think in lines. Before you slide, ask which column or row each of your big tiles is in, on every face you can see or reach. Equal tiles that share a column meet on an up or down slide. Equal tiles that share a row meet on a left or right slide. Tiles that share neither will not meet, however close they look on the screen.

That is the difference from twisting a row. A twist moves tiles to a new line. A Fun mode slide only uses the line they are already in.

Tip 2: watch what sits between two equal tiles

A merge needs the two tiles to be next to each other along the line, as in plain 2048. I tested this with an 8 on the front's top middle, a 2 on the top face's middle and an 8 on the back face's middle, then slid down. The three tiles ended stacked on the front as 8, 2, 8 from top to bottom, with Score 0. The 2 between the 8s kept them apart.

So a small tile in the middle of a line blocks it. When you want two big tiles to join, clear the small ones out of their line first, or move the big tiles to a line that is empty.

Hidden tiles move too, and the front is where they pile

You see only three faces of the cube at a time, so part of every line is out of sight. A slide moves all of it. A tile you parked on the back face can come round to the front, and a tile on the front can be pushed round to the back.

Turning the cube is free, as the game's own tip says, so use it. Before a slide you care about, drag the empty space around the cube and look at the faces your line crosses. I did not test turns in Fun mode, so check the board after your first turn.

The tiles pile up on the front, so the front is where your merged tiles will be, and where your next merges will start. In my tests the new 8 landed on the front square at the end of the slide: the top middle for up, the bottom middle for down, the middle left for left and the middle right for right.

That gives you a small plan: pick the end you want your big tile to sit at, and use that direction most. A big tile that already sits at the end of its line stays there when you slide towards that end.

A worked example: four 4s in one column

Here is a test you can copy by playing. I put four 4s in one column: front middle, top middle, back middle and bottom middle. One slide up gave two 8s on the front, at the top middle and the middle, with Score 16 and Moves 1. Four 4s in one line made two merges at once, and the new tile was a 2.

The lesson is to gather your equals in one line first, then slide once. I did not play the second slide, so I cannot tell you what it does.

Fun mode compared with Edge and Evolved

The three modes differ in how far one slide reaches. In Evolved, a slide works on the front face, as in 2048, and you twist and turn the cube to bring tiles together. Edge works the same way, and a slide towards an edge also merges the tile at that edge with an equal tile just over it, on the next face. Fun goes furthest: the whole column or row.

Read 2048 game modes: what Evolved, Edge and Fun change for the three side by side, and 2048 Edge mode tips for the middle one. Each mode keeps its own best score.

What I did not test: a full game in Fun mode, how the game ends there, and long runs. Treat the tips above as habits from one-slide tests, not a proven way to reach 2048.

Frequently asked questions

What does Fun mode do in 2048?

A slide runs each row or column all the way round the cube. Equal tiles along it merge, and the tiles pile up on the front.

Do tiles on the back face merge with the front?

Yes, when they share the same column or row. In my test a 4 on the back's middle square and a 4 on the front's middle square merged on all four slide directions.

Why did my slide not merge two equal tiles?

They were probably in different columns or rows, or another tile sat between them. A 4 on the right face did not merge with a 4 on the front on an up slide.

Is my best score shared between modes?

No. The game keeps a best score for each mode.

Get started

Open Evolved 2048, pick Fun in the "Pick a mode" box and try one slide with two equal tiles in the same column. It is free to play in your browser on a computer or a phone.