Your first game
- Choose a journey. Main Journey starts you on a route through themed worlds. Explore lets you pick countries and cities in any order.
- Choose your difficulty. Relaxed gives you more room to experiment. Classic rewards planning. Expert asks for greater precision. Each difficulty keeps its own board and scores.
- Position your next piece. Move the drop position, then release. The piece falls and interacts with the pile below.
- Bring a matching pair together. When two of the same type meet, they merge into the next form. The Evolution Path shows what you are working toward.
- Reach Final Fusion. Evolve through all ten forms, then merge two of the final type. You can continue a completed run to keep chasing a higher score.
A useful first habit: pause between drops and let the pile settle. Look for pairs you can bring together, and keep room for the next piece instead of filling every gap immediately.
What do the three stars mean?
Stars are optional challenges. You can complete a world without earning all three, then return when you want a tougher goal.
- Efficiency: reach your first Final Fusion within the drop limit shown for your difficulty. Each released piece counts as one drop.
- Cascade: trigger the required number of merges from a single drop. The target appears on the board. You can still earn Cascade after Final Fusion.
- Clean Fusion: reach your first Final Fusion without using a rescue tool. Using a tool afterward does not take an earned Clean Fusion star away.
Passing the Efficiency limit only misses that star; you can keep playing and finish the world. Check the in-game guide for the current targets and effects in your chosen world.
How do Pick, Clear, and Shuffle work?
- Pick removes one piece you choose. It stores three uses and recharges one use at a time.
- Clear removes the three smallest piece types.
- Shuffle rearranges the pile to give you another chance at useful matches.
Tools recharge through play. Tap a tool for its details. Using any tool before your first Final Fusion means that run will not earn Clean Fusion, but it can still be a successful run.
Main Journey or Explore?
Main Journey has 50 included worlds. Move through orchards, oceans, ancient wonders, the cosmos, and more as you unlock destinations. It works offline, and your Main Journey progress can sync through your private iCloud account.
Explore contains 90 downloadable destinations across Countries, US Cities, and World Cities. Open a world’s preview, download its artwork, and play it in any order. Search for a favorite place or browse the collections. Downloaded worlds also play offline.
Explore boards, stars, and badges stay on the device. Removing a world’s downloaded artwork keeps its progress on that device, ready for when you download it again. Main Journey and Explore have separate score totals.
Play for your favorite country or city
Explore includes monthly and all-time community rankings. With iCloud available, new points you earn can contribute to the world you are playing. Anyone can support any destination; the game does not use your physical location to pick a side.
To earn the month’s passport stamp, score points in five different Explore worlds during that month. Open the community rankings to see world totals and your own contribution. Player leaderboards and achievements use Game Center separately.
A few ways to make your next run better
- Plan with both the current piece and the Next preview.
- Keep matching pieces within reach of one another when the board allows it.
- Leave space near the drop line so a bounce does not turn a useful move into a crowded board.
- Try Relaxed while learning a world’s shapes and effects, then return for harder stars.
- Pause when you step away. Saved boards let you return to a run later.
Need help with a save or leaderboard? Visit Merge Horizon support. Avoid uninstalling the app while investigating a save problem.