How to play Swap
Swap is the heart of Hex: a honeycomb that is almost a perfect gradient, with a few hexes out of place. This guide covers how to read a board, how to solve it in the fewest swaps, and what changes as you go through the Journey's 10 worlds.
The rules in one minute
- Tap a hex that looks wrong, then tap the hex that belongs in its place. You can also drag one onto the other.
- A swap that puts nothing home bounces back, and still costs a swap. So a swap is only worth making when you are sure at least one of the two tiles is going home.
- Solve the board in the fewest possible swaps for three stars. A couple of extra swaps still earns two.
- Every level gives you a few spare swaps. Run out and you can try again, take a rescue (+3 swaps; your first one is free) or continue with Hex Coins.
Reading the gradient
Start from the dotted tiles. Tiles with a dotted mark are guide tiles. They never move and they are always right, so they tell you where the colors are heading. Look at two guide tiles and picture the smooth blend between them.
Scan in lines, not all at once. A gradient changes steadily along each row and each diagonal. Run your eye along one row at a time and look for the step that is too big or the color that goes backwards (lighter, then darker, then lighter again). That tile is out of place.
Look for the pair. Most wrong tiles are swapped with each other: if a light tile sits in a dark spot, there is usually a dark tile sitting in a light spot nearby. Find both and one swap fixes two tiles. That is why the fewest number of swaps is usually about half the number of tiles out of place.
Watch for loops. Sometimes three tiles are out of place in a circle (A sits where B belongs, B where C belongs, C where A belongs). No single swap fixes all three; it takes two. Put one tile home first and the other two become an ordinary pair.
Squint at the hard ones. On the subtle worlds, the difference between neighbours can be tiny. Lean back from the screen: a wrong tile often stands out more from a distance than up close.
Boosters, and when to use them
- Fix puts one wrong tile home without using a swap. Save it for the last tile you can't find.
- Reveal lights up every wrong tile for three seconds. It is the best booster for a boss level: use it at the start, and remember where the highlights were.
- +3 gives you three more swaps when you are about to run out.
- Undo takes back your last swap.
You earn boosters from the daily gift, world chests, win streaks and bonus rounds, or you can buy them with Hex Coins.
The 10 worlds of the Swap Journey
The Journey has 185 levels. Each world ends with a boss level, and the difficulty climbs and dips inside every world (a hard level is usually followed by a breather).
- Warm Up. Small boards and clear colors. Learn the feel.
- Subtle. A bigger comb, closer shades and more tiles out of place.
- Full Comb. The full honeycomb and finer differences.
- The Hive. A round board in warm honey colors.
- Frost. Frozen tiles. A frozen tile can't move until it thaws, and it thaws after you fix other tiles. Fix the free tiles first.
- The Ring. A ring-shaped board. Follow the gradient all the way round.
- Heartwood. Heart-shaped boards, with ice. Plan which tiles to fix first.
- Diamond. Tall boards, narrow points and tiny differences. Take your time.
- Deep Freeze. The big Hive, frozen solid. More ice, slower to thaw: every correct swap counts.
- Master Comb. Everything at once, with the finest shades in the game.
Other ways to play Swap
The Daily. One board a day, the same for every player, and one try. Read the whole board before your first swap: there is no second attempt. The Daily rotates through the games (Monday Swap, Tuesday Bloom, Wednesday Memory, Thursday Spot, Friday Drift, Saturday Swap, Sunday a surprise), and one streak covers all of them.
Endless. Fix boards before the fuse burns out. Fixes made within two seconds of each other build a combo (up to 5×), and every point counts more while the combo lasts. Clearing a board earns a bonus that grows with your combo, and the fuse pauses while the next board arrives.
Drift. The honeycomb drifts apart on its own. Hold it together: fix tiles as they slip, and keep your eyes moving across the whole board rather than staring at one corner. The Drift Journey has 75 holds in five worlds: Steady, Gale, Storm, Squall and Tempest.