Unscrew

What is Unscrew?

Unscrew is a screw-pin demolition puzzle: a board of woven planks, layered two to four deep, each one pinned in place by metallic screws. Your job sounds simple — move screws into free holes until no screw passes through a plank, at which point the plank drops off the board. Clear every plank and you advance to the next level, where the weave runs deeper, the screws multiply and the parking gets scarcer. Two things make it a genuine puzzle. First, screws don't just hold the plank they sit on: a screw passes through every plank beneath it, so one screw at a crossing can pin two or three planks at once. Second, the board is drilled with only a handful of holes — every screw you pull must go somewhere, and most of the somewheres pass straight through planks that are still alive, pinning them right back down. Each level grants a move budget derived from the solver's own solution; running out of moves ends your run and sends your points to the leaderboard.

How to play

Tap or click a screw to pick it up. The planks it currently pins light up, and every hole it can legally move to starts glowing — tap one of those holes and the screw drives in. A hole is usable when nothing blocks the channel: either the cell is completely uncovered, or every plank covering it has a punched opening at exactly that spot.

The rings tell you what you're buying. A cyan ring is neutral ground — parking there has no side effects. An amber dashed ring passes through one or more living planks: the screw will fit, but it pins those planks all over again, and you'll pay another move later to undo it. Sometimes that's a blunder; on tight boards it's the only way through, and the whole game is knowing which is which.

The moment a plank has no screws passing through it, it falls — scoring 100 points plus 10 per cell of its size — and every board hole it was covering becomes available. Some of the best parking on the board starts out buried under a plank, so the order you demolish in decides how much room you'll have to work.

From level 5 onward some screws wear a lock (🔒). They refuse to move until you drop the plank carrying the matching key (🔑) — which quietly dictates part of your dismantling order.

On desktop you can also play entirely with the keyboard: Tab moves between screws and glowing holes, Enter or Space confirms.

Strategy tips

1. Read the weave before the first move. Find the crossing screws — the ones sitting where planks overlap are doing double or triple duty, and they're both your best moves and your worst traps.
2. Count your parking before you commit. If a plank needs three screws removed and you can only see two usable holes, you'll have to route through an amber hole — decide which plank you can afford to re-pin, and pick one that falls late anyway.
3. Unbury the good holes early. Holes hidden under planks open up when those planks fall. A plank sitting on two board holes is worth dropping before a bigger, flashier one that frees nothing.
4. Amber is a loan, not a gift. Every screw parked through a living plank must move again before that plank can fall. Take the loan when the timing is right — just before you finish some other plank — not as a reflex.
5. Spend the budget on thinking, not wandering. Unused moves pay 25 points each at level clear, but a lost level ends the whole run. When in doubt, take the safe line; efficiency bonuses compound only while you're still alive.

FAQ

How is my score calculated?

Every dropped plank is worth 100 points plus 10 per cell of its size, and each cleared level adds 25 points for every unused move in that level's budget. Your run ends when a level's budget runs out with planks still standing; the total is your score, and higher is better.

Can the puzzle become unsolvable?

Every generated level is solvable from its starting position — the generator only ships a board together with a solution it has verified move by move. Mid-run you can still waste moves by re-pinning planks with careless parking, but a legal move always exists; what runs out is the budget, not the board.

Is the daily challenge the same for everyone?

Yes. In daily mode every player receives exactly the same sequence of boards, generated from a shared seed, so the daily leaderboard compares identical puzzles.

Why is there no timer?

Unscrew is a reasoning game, so the pressure is on your move count, not your reflexes. Take as long as you like to read the board — the only thing the game counts is how many moves your plan costs compared to the solver's.

What's a good score?

Clearing the first few levels puts you around 1,200–1,800 points. Reaching 4,000 means you handled the deep weaves and locked screws with real efficiency, and 8,000+ is clockwork-legend territory — near-optimal routes, level after level.