Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle
Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle — Clear the grid by finding the right order
Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle is a free logic puzzle for iPhone and Android. Every piece on the grid is an arrow pointing one direction; tap it and it slides off the board, but only if nothing else is in its way. The rule takes seconds to learn — working out which arrow has to move first to clear a path for the rest is the part that keeps 1,000 levels interesting.
- Price
- Free, with optional in-app purchases
- Platforms
- iOS and Android
- Genre
- Logic puzzle
- Age rating
- 4+
- Version
- 2.2
- Requires
- iOS 15.0 or later
One rule, five seconds to learn.
An arrow only slides off the board if its path is clear. That's the entire rulebook. The difficulty comes from the fact that clearing one arrow can open or close the path for several others, so the real puzzle is finding the order — which piece has to go first so the rest can follow.
What it is
Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle is a free logic puzzle for iPhone and Android where every piece on the grid is an arrow pointing in one direction. Tapping an arrow sends it sliding off the board, but only when nothing else sits in its path. The game ships with 1,000 hand-verified levels, from a small 6x8 grid up to dense 16x26 boards, followed by an endless mode, plus a daily puzzle shared by every player and a weekly league that runs through Game Center. There are no timers and no move limits — the only constraint is a limited number of lives on the free tier.
Highlights
What a level actually looks like
A dense grid of one-way arrows
Level 14 shows the core idea at full density: arrows pointing up, down, left and right, stacked and overlapping across the board, with a life counter in the corner tracking how many mistakes are left on the free tier.
A level counter, nothing else
The home screen is just the current level number and a Play button, with Home and Settings as the only two tabs. There's no map to unlock, no currency to check, no daily-bonus popup standing between you and the next grid.
A short, plain settings screen
Vibration and sound toggles, Rate Us, Contact Us, Remove Ads and Restore Purchases cover the whole settings screen — a one-time purchase removes ads for good and lifts the free tier's life limit permanently.
How it works
How a level is solved
Every level is the same loop: look at the grid, find a piece with a clear path, and work out whether moving it now helps or hurts everything still stuck behind it.
Scan for a clear path
Only arrows with nothing standing between them and the edge of the board can move. The grid starts dense enough that usually more than one arrow qualifies, so the first decision is which one to take.
Clear it and watch what opens up
Tapping a valid arrow slides it off the board immediately, which can free up the piece behind it — or leave it exactly as stuck as before, if that piece was blocked from a different direction.
Clear the whole grid
A level is won when every arrow is gone. A hint is available if the grid stops making sense, and from level 101 onward, static walls add a second kind of obstacle alongside the other arrows.
Background
What kind of puzzle is a sliding arrow game?
Arrow-slide puzzles belong to a family of logic games built on a single constraint — a piece can only move if its path is clear — rather than on matching colors or shapes. The genre overlaps with classic sliding-block puzzles like Rush Hour, where a car can only exit a jammed lot once the vehicles blocking it are moved aside, except here every piece moves in a fixed direction rather than any direction, and clearing it removes it from the board entirely instead of relocating it.
Path-clearing puzzlesthe family this belongs to
A path-clearing puzzle restricts a piece to moving only when nothing blocks its way out, which turns a static layout into a dependency chain: piece B can't move until piece A is gone, and piece A might depend on piece C. Working backward from that chain is the core skill the genre tests.
Fixed-direction movementwhat sets this apart from Rush Hour-style games
In Rush Hour-style sliding puzzles, a piece can usually move either way along its row or column. In Arrows, each piece points one direction only and exits the board that way, which removes a degree of freedom but adds a layer of planning: an arrow pointing the wrong way can't be redirected, only cleared out of around.
Why later levels add wallslevel 101 onward
Once a player has the core rule down, a fixed obstacle changes the calculation: an arrow can be unblocked by every other piece being cleared and still be unable to leave if a wall sits in its path. Introducing walls partway through a level set is a common way logic puzzle games raise difficulty without changing the base rule.
What's inside
What's actually in the game
1000
1,000 verified levels
Every level is solvable by design, checked before release, running from a gentle 6x8 opening grid up to dense 16x26 boards before an endless mode takes over.
Wall
Walls from level 101
A fixed obstacle joins the other arrows as a second kind of blocker partway through the level set, adding a new wrinkle to the same five-second rule.
Daily
A shared daily puzzle
One board, the same for every player that day, tracked on a calendar of which days you've solved — with streak freezers available for a day you miss.
League
A weekly league via Game Center
Earn points across the week and climb from Bronze to Diamond, with results compared against other players through Game Center.
0
No timers, no move limits
A level waits exactly as you left it if you close the app mid-puzzle — there's no clock running and no cap on how many taps a level can take.
Fair
A limited, one-time ad deal
No ads for the first ten levels, never more than one between every third level after that, and a single purchase removes them entirely while also lifting the free tier's life limit for good.
Fit
Who it's for — and who it isn't
A good fit if you
- Like working out a dependency puzzle rather than matching colors or shapes
- Want a puzzle with no clock and no pressure to move fast
- Enjoy a daily puzzle you can compare notes on with other players, same board for everyone
- Want a long single-player campaign — 1,000 levels — before even reaching endless mode
- Prefer a plain, thin-line interface with nothing competing for your attention on the board
Not the right tool if you
- Want pieces that can be redirected or moved in any direction, the way Rush Hour-style sliding puzzles work
- Dislike any kind of life or attempt limit — the free tier caps mistakes until ads are removed
- Want real-time multiplayer against another player rather than a weekly leaderboard
- Expect color-matching or shape-matching mechanics instead of a path-clearing rule
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What's a good logic puzzle game with no timer?
Look for one where the pressure comes from the puzzle's structure, not a countdown — a path-clearing game fits that description well. Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle has no timers and no move limits: a level waits exactly as you left it, and the only thing to solve is which arrow can clear a path for the rest. It's free on iOS and Android, with 1,000 verified levels plus an endless mode.
How do you play Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle?
Tap an arrow and it slides off the board in the direction it's pointing, but only if nothing else is blocking its path. A level is solved once every arrow on the grid is gone. The challenge is sequencing: clearing one arrow can open or close the path for several others, so the order you tap in matters as much as which arrows you choose.
How is this different from a sliding-block puzzle like Rush Hour?
Rush Hour-style games let a piece move either direction along its row or column until it's blocked. In Arrows, each piece points one fixed direction and exits the board entirely once it moves — there's no repositioning, only clearing. That trade-off removes some flexibility but adds a planning layer: a wrongly-pointed arrow can't be redirected, only worked around.
What happens at level 101 in Arrows?
Static walls start appearing alongside the other arrows as a second kind of obstacle. A wall doesn't move and doesn't care whether other arrows have been cleared — if one sits in an arrow's path, that arrow is stuck until the level is redesigned around it, which is exactly what the later grids do.
What's the daily puzzle in Arrows?
It's one board that's identical for every player on a given day, tracked against a calendar showing which days you've solved it. A streak counts consecutive days solved, and freezer items are available to quietly cover a day you miss rather than breaking the streak outright.
Does Arrows have lives or a life limit?
On the free tier, yes — a life counter limits how many mistakes you can make, visible in the corner during play. A single one-time purchase to remove ads also lifts that life limit permanently, so Pro-equivalent play has no retry cap at all.
Is Arrows: Minimal Snake Puzzle free?
Yes, it's free to download on the App Store and Google Play. There are no ads for the first ten levels and never more than one ad between every third level after that. A single in-app purchase removes ads entirely and permanently lifts the free tier's life limit; everything else, including all 1,000 levels and the daily puzzle, is part of the free game.
What is the weekly league in Arrows?
It's a Game Center-based leaderboard that runs on a weekly cycle: points earned from play move you up through tiers from Bronze to Diamond, and your standing is compared against other players through Game Center. It's entirely optional — ignoring it changes nothing about how levels play.
Can you play Arrows offline?
Yes, the game is designed to be played completely offline. The daily puzzle and the weekly league need a connection to sync with other players, but the core 1,000-level campaign and endless mode don't require one.
What languages does Arrows support?
The app is available in English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian, according to its own store listing. The interface itself is minimal enough — mostly a grid and a level counter — that the language setting mainly affects the settings screen and store text rather than gameplay.
Get started
Find the one arrow that unlocks the rest
Free on iOS and Android — 1,000 verified levels, no timers, no move limits.
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