Screw Puzzle Game: Screw Out

Like screw puzzles? In Screw Out you tap screws into matching color boxes so the wooden planks can drop. A 5-slot spare tray holds the ones that do not match yet. Free in your browser.

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How a screw puzzle works

A screw puzzle, sometimes called a nuts and bolts game, a screw sort or a pin puzzle, builds a little object out of wooden planks. Screws hold the planks together. You take the screws out in the right order, and each one has to go into a box of the same color. When a plank has no screws left, it drops away. The puzzle is the order: the wrong screw too early leaves you with nowhere to put it.

Most of these games give you a small spare tray. It is a parking spot for a color you cannot use yet. The tray is short on purpose. Fill it and the level ends, even if the board still has plenty of screws. That is what makes a calm-looking wood puzzle feel like a real plan.

What Screw Out adds

Screw Out is a wood puzzle on a plain wooden table. Tap an uncovered screw and it flies into the open box of the same color. Each box holds three screws. When a box fills, it flies away and the next color slides in. If a screw of that new color is waiting in the tray, it flies up into the box on its own. Up to two boxes are open at once, so you can often feed two colors before you have to park a third.

There are 10 hand-made levels. The first boards are a single plank and a couple of colors. Later ones stack planks into little houses and bridges, with screws hidden under the wood above them. A covered screw will not move. You clear from the top down, the way you would actually unscrew a stack of boards. The first level shows a short tip. After that, you read the pile yourself.

How to play

• Tap a free screw. Press a screw that no plank covers. On a computer, click it. It flies into the matching color box.
• Fill the box. Three screws of that color and the box flies away. The next color slides into its place, and a matching screw in the tray can go with it.
• Use the spare tray. A screw that does not match an open box parks in the tray. There are 5 slots. Fill all five and the level ends.
• Drop the planks. When every screw in a plank is out, that plank falls. Clear every plank to finish the level.

Stars and tips

Any clear earns at least 1 star. If the spare tray never holds more than 3 screws, you earn 2 stars. If it never holds more than 1, you earn 3. Stars stay on your device, so you can replay a level and use the tray less.

• Start at the top. A screw under another plank is stuck. Take the top board apart first.
• Feed the open boxes. If a color is already open, send those screws home before you park a new color.
• Watch the next color. When a box fills, the next color slides in and can pull a matching screw out of the tray. A parked screw is not always stuck.
• Leave a spare slot. A full tray is the only way to lose. Keep one slot empty until you are sure the next screw matches.

Why people like screw puzzles

Screw puzzles are quick to learn and satisfying to finish. One level fits on a phone screen. The planks drop with a little thud, the boxes fill and fly off, and the pile gets simpler one screw at a time. There is no timer. A wrong tap only fills a tray slot, and you can replay the level as soon as it jams. Nuts and bolts games became a huge casual puzzle for that reason: the rules fit in one sentence, and the later levels still make you stop and look.

If you like color-sorting puzzles, pour flasks in the water sort puzzle Flaskle, or unravel yarn onto matching spools in the yarn puzzle game Cozy Knits. Both are free in the browser, and so is the rest of our puzzle games.

Frequently asked questions

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• Water Sort Puzzle Online
• Yarn Puzzle Game
• Play Screw Out online