Pour Decisions

A pour-and-sort puzzle on a warm walnut bar. Tip one cut-crystal glass into another until every glass holds a single colour, and a crystal stopper drops into each one you finish. Then the glasses start changing the rules: brass taps that drain from the bottom, sealed glasses, a shelf you can’t pour across and glasses that turn themselves upside down.

How to play

Tap a glass to pick it up, then tap another to pour into it. The whole run of one colour on top pours across, as much as fits. Liquid only lands on the same colour or in an empty glass, and every glass holds four. A glass filled to the top with one colour gets its stopper and is done. When every glass is stoppered or empty, the level is clear. Fewer moves earn more stars, up to three, and the stars at the top show where you stand as you play. On a keyboard, the arrow keys choose a glass and Space taps it, F turns its tap, Z undoes, R restarts and E brings out an extra glass.

Tips

• Undo is free and unlimited, and it takes the move off your count, so trying an idea costs nothing.
• An empty glass is your most useful one. Think twice before you fill it with a colour that has nowhere else to go.
• A tap drains the bottom colour into the glass below it. It’s the only way to empty a sealed glass, and the only way across the shelf.
• A flip glass turns its whole stack upside down when its count runs out, bringing the bottom colour to the top. Plan your pours around the count on its plaque.
• You start with one extra glass and earn another for every tenth level you clear. A glass you use stays for that level, even if you restart, so save it for when you’re stuck.

Glasses and levels

Each new kind of glass gets a short line the first time you meet it. Sealed glasses wear a dark cap with a gold band. A brass plaque with a drop marks a glass that only takes its own colour, and a stopper waiting above a rim only fits its own colour. Some levels hide a spare glass, and Extra glass brings it out; with no spare to show, it breaks the last seal or adds an empty glass.

There are 14 colours, each with its own small symbol in the liquid, so you can tell them apart without relying on colour. Levels open in order. The Levels list in the pause menu groups them into chapters named for the glass each brings in, shows your stars on each level and lets you replay any you’ve reached. Your progress is saved after every move, even halfway through a level.