Karrots: open a path, just not for them

Karrots is a sliding puzzle with something living in the empty space. A bunny stands in a hole in a tray of bricks, her carrot is in another hole somewhere across the board, and you open a path between them by sliding bricks along their own length. Every brick you move leaves a hole behind it. So does the next one. That is how she gets across.

Something else stands in a hole too, and it paces the ones it can reach, which is how you see how far that reach goes. In The Woods it is a fox. In Arctic Salad it is a penguin, on The Road a police car, and in Ocean World a shark. Open a gap that joins their holes to hers and the two of them are in the same space, which is the end of the level. Making room is the whole game and making room is also the risk.

How to play

One move, and it is the only thing you do.

• Drag a brick along its own length. A brick lying flat slides left and right; a standing one slides up and down. It travels as far as the empty squares let it, it leaves a hole behind it, and every square it travels costs you a move.
• The bunny goes on her own. The moment a line of holes joins her to the carrot she runs it, so the whole game is opening that line without opening one to them.
• Watch where the hunter paces. Whoever it is in this world walks back and forth across every hole they can already reach, so their territory shows itself. Anything they can walk to, they can walk to.
• No brick will squash them. A brick will not slide onto the hunter any more than it will onto the bunny; if there is somebody in the square, it does not move. You beat them by walling them in, closing their holes until the ones they have left touch nothing of yours.
• One brick on every board carries a bomb. It does nothing where it stands. Move it and it is destroyed instead of arriving, so it leaves a bigger gap than a slide would, and it needs an empty square in front of it before it can go anywhere at all. It is a trade rather than a gift: that brick can never be slid into place again.
• Some blocks never move. Every world has one that is fixed in place: a brick wall in The Woods, an iceberg in Arctic Salad and Ocean World, a traffic cone on The Road. The carrot's square is reserved too, so no brick can slide over it, and the only one who may ever stand on it is the bunny.
• The goal is the carrot. Reach it in as few moves as you can: three carrots for matching par, two for close, one for finishing.
• Undo and Restart are always available and Restart is instant. An undo costs you a move, because a move count that does not charge for undo is not counting anything.

Your level, your best move counts and your carrots are saved in this browser, so you always pick up where you left off.

Four worlds, ninety six levels

The board is ten squares across and seven down, and there are ninety six levels on it, twenty four in each of four worlds. Every one of them has exactly one bomb, and on every one of them the bomb changes the shortest solution: a bomb that made no difference would be decoration, and four dominoes in five are exactly that, so the one that carries it was chosen by search. The Woods, Arctic Salad, The Road and Ocean World each have their own ground, their own hunter and their own block that will not move.

They get harder in order. Par runs from two moves on the first woods level to twenty five on the last ocean one, and it climbs inside each world as well as across them. On a phone the board turns on its side, seven across and ten down, so the whole of it still fits without scrolling.

Why it is clever

Every other game of this kind asks you to open space and rewards you for opening more of it. Here the space is shared. The corridor that gets the bunny to her carrot in the fewest moves is often the same corridor that connects the hunter to her hole, and the route that keeps her safe costs you moves against par. That is the decision the game is made of, and it is why a board can be easy to solve and hard to solve well.

Nothing is hidden and nothing is random. The hunter only ever moves through a hole you opened, and shows you their reach themselves by walking it. Every level in the game was solved by an exhaustive search before it shipped, and par is the length of the shortest solution that search found, so it is a number that can actually be matched.

Par is proved against a hunter who moves, not one standing still. Because they pace while you think, you can always wait for one to step out of a doorway, so every level is searched a second time with the hunters free to wander. Any board whose par only held because somebody was caught standing in the right square was thrown away rather than shipped.

Tips

• Plan backwards from the carrot. Decide which hole she arrives from, then work out which brick has to leave.
• Watch the hunter before you touch anything. Where they walk is where they can already go, and the shortest route past them is usually the one that runs alongside it without ever joining it.
• Count which bricks can move at all. On a tight board most of them cannot, and the one that can is usually the answer.
• The mistake everyone makes once is opening a lane down the side of the board because it is the fastest way through. It usually is, for them.

Frequently asked questions

Is Karrots free? Yes, completely free to play, with no account or download, in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop.

Does it work on mobile? Yes. Karrots is built for touch as well as mouse, and the whole board fits a phone screen without scrolling.

How do I win? Get the bunny to the carrot without ever letting a connected path of holes join her to whoever is hunting her.

How many levels are there? Ninety six, twenty four in each of four worlds, and they get harder in order. Par runs from two moves to twenty five.

Is every level solvable? Yes, and it is proven rather than assumed. Every level was run through a complete breadth-first search of its reachable positions before it shipped, and the par shown on screen is the length of the shortest solution that search found.

Stuck? Read the Karrots strategy guide →

Enjoy a good thinking puzzle? Try Bloom or Kaleido, or browse all Zamborin games.