Survivor Slide Puzzle
Slide the red blocks until the large square escapes through the notch at the bottom.
- Slide: drag blocks into empty space; any distance is one move.
- Rule: nothing lifts out and nothing rotates; blocks only slide.
- Win: work the large square out through the bottom notch.
About this puzzle
The trap that catches most players is shoving the square straight down as fast as possible. The square needs a 2 by 2 pocket of empty space to move into, and the wide blocks near the exit cannot pass each other in the middle columns, so solve the traffic jam at the bottom first and the square's path opens on its own. Keyboard players can Tab to a block and nudge it with the arrow keys, and the hint button always knows the next move of a perfect solution.
This board recreates the block puzzle from Survivor South Pacific, season 23, where it appeared as a challenge prop. It belongs to the klotski family of sliding puzzles, a format that has frustrated people for generations because the idea takes ten seconds to understand and the solve takes considerably longer. See the cast and how the season played out on the Survivor South Pacific page.
More island brainteasers: try the full Survivor puzzle collection, race the Survivor 48 number puzzle, or test yourself in the other Survivor games.
Frequently asked questions
How does the Survivor slide puzzle work?
The frame holds nine red blocks in a 4 by 5 grid with four empty cells and a notch cut into the bottom edge under the middle two columns. Blocks slide up, down, left, or right into empty space; nothing lifts out and nothing rotates. Your goal is to work the large square down the board until it sits over the notch, then slide it out. One drag of one block, any distance in a straight line, counts as one move.
What kind of puzzle is this?
It is a klotski, a classic family of sliding block puzzles played around the world for over a century, in which flat blocks shuffle inside a tray until the largest one escapes through an opening. Survivor built its own version of the idea as a challenge prop, and this page recreates that board.
What is the minimum number of moves?
The layout traced from the show prop can be solved in 22 moves at best: 21 moves to bring the large square down into the exit slot plus the final slide out through the notch. That number comes from an exhaustive computer search of every reachable position. Each board you play is scored against its own freshly computed optimum.
How does the daily board work?
The page loads the daily board: the show layout with 40 seeded random slides applied, giving everyone in the world the same scrambled board for the day. Because every slide is reversible, the daily board is always solvable, and its own best-possible move count is computed fresh and used as that day's par. After a win you are offered a fresh board.
Any tips for solving it faster?
Work backwards from the exit: the two wide blocks guarding the bottom rows have to end up out of the middle columns, so plan where they will park before you touch the square. Keep the four empty cells together when you can, since the large square needs a 2 by 2 pocket to move into, and remember that a long slide costs the same one move as a short one. If you are truly stuck, the hint button shows the next move of a perfect solution.