About Merge Cards

Numbered cards come off the deck one at a time — 2s, 4s, 8s, up to the odd 64 — and you can see the one after next. Put each card at the foot of one of four columns. Land it on a card of the same number and the two merge into one worth double; if the new card now matches the one above it, they merge too, and so on up the column. Line a column up as 64, 32, 16, 8, 4 and a single 4 sends the whole lot cascading into a 128.

A column holds eight cards. A full column still takes a card that merges with its foot, but nothing else, and when the card in your hand has nowhere to go the game is over — unless you have a discard left to throw it away. You start with two, and a merge that makes 256 or more wins one back. Make a 2048 and it leaves the table altogether, worth double.

Every merge scores the card it makes. The daily deal is the same 160 cards for everyone, ranked by score — the art is in keeping each column running downhill so the cascades come. Free play deals on for as long as you can find room.

Tips to win

• Keep every column going downhill: big cards at the top, small at the foot
• Look at the next card before you place this one
• Keep one column for small cards so 2s and 4s always have a home
• Save your discards for the moment the table is nearly full