The thirty seconds before your first move

Watch two people play the same level and the difference is not dexterity. The weaker player starts sliding within a second and makes twenty moves. The stronger one sits still for half a minute and makes eleven. Everything that separates them happens before the first move, and it is a routine rather than a talent.

One: find the lane, not the target

Your eye goes to the target block, which is the wrong place — the target is already where it needs to be. Look instead at the strip of cells between it and its exit and list what is standing there. That list is the puzzle. If it holds one piece the level is short; if it holds three, expect a long chain.

Two: ask whether each blocker can move at all

Take the blocker nearest the exit and work out, without touching anything, where it could legally go. Often the answer is nowhere. That is not bad news — it is the discovery that makes the rest easy, because it tells you the real first move is somewhere else entirely.

Three: walk the chain backwards to a piece with room

Keep asking the same question of each new blocker until you reach a piece that has somewhere to go. That piece is your first move. Levels feel impossible almost entirely because players try to move the piece closest to the exit and give up when it will not budge.

Four: check where each piece will end up

Before executing, run the plan once more and watch the cells you are about to fill. The classic failure is parking a piece in the exact cell a later move needed. On tight boards — eight or more pieces, several walls — this check saves more moves than anything else.

Why experimenting costs more than thinking

A trial move destroys the position you were reasoning about. You then have to rebuild your understanding of a board you no longer recognise, which takes longer than the thinking did and teaches you nothing. If you have lost the thread, reset. A reset returns you to a position you understand, and understanding is the thing you are short of, not moves.

Where this pays off

The routine is worth almost nothing on the first ten levels and worth everything from about level 25, where walls start narrowing the board. Try it deliberately on a level you have already beaten and watch your move count drop toward par. The move count is the honest measure of planning; time mostly measures how fast you drag.