How to play The Jigsaw Table

Your first puzzle

A small puzzle is a good way to get comfortable. The game also includes a guided six-piece puzzle, which you can replay from Settings.

Choose New Puzzle. Browse the picture collections in the game catalogue.
Pick a picture. The board follows its shape, so a tall picture makes a tall puzzle.
Choose the piece count and difficulty. Try a small count and Easy or Relaxed for your first table. The setup preview shows the cut.
Start the puzzle. Its full-resolution picture is downloaded first if it is not already cached. Your loose pieces appear in the tray at the bottom.

Puzzle setup with a lakeside cottage, piece-count selection and difficulty settings — Choose the picture, the number of pieces, and the kind of challenge.

Meet your table

The large upper area is your workspace. The outlined picture area is where the finished puzzle belongs. The bottom strip is your piece tray; the controls on the left help you inspect and organise the puzzle.

A half-finished lakeside cottage puzzle, tool rail on the left, and loose pieces in the bottom tray — Actual game capture: board above, tray below, tools on the left.

The board

Drag pieces here to try a fit. Loose pieces can wait in the workspace while you look for their neighbours.

The tray

A separate, movable workspace for pieces you have not placed. The visible row is not the whole tray.

The tool rail

Preview, Hint, Edges, Fit, and Look. Rotation controls appear when the puzzle allows rotation.

The tray is bigger than it looks

Pieces outside the visible tray have not disappeared. Think of the tray as another table you can move around under a window.

Move around: drag an empty part of the tray. The clear strip below the pieces is a useful place to start a swipe without picking one up.
Zoom the tray: pinch with two fingers inside the tray. This changes the tray view independently of the board.
Give it more space: drag the small up/down handle on the right-hand boundary between the board and tray. Pull up for a taller tray, down for a larger board.
Pick up a piece: press the piece, then drag it toward the board. When you intend to move the tray, start on an empty area instead.
Sort in the tray: move pieces to convenient places. Matching pieces can connect into a group before you take them to the board.

The same puzzle with a taller tray and additional rows of loose pieces visible — The resize handle gives you more room to scan and sort pieces.

Arrange pieces. Follow the yellow markers.

Arrange

Arrange repacks the visible tray pieces, including pieces you have moved yourself. Connected groups stay together. It does not solve the puzzle or move pieces already on the board.

Arrange follows the current filter. With Edges enabled, it arranges the edge pieces; the hidden interior pieces are ignored. Turn Edges off and arrange again to organise all the remaining tray pieces.

Yellow direction markers

A yellow marker at a workspace edge means there are pieces beyond that side of the current view. The arrow gives the direction and the number tells you how many are out of view. Both the board and the tray have these markers.

Pan that workspace in the indicated direction, or zoom out. Use Fit to bring the puzzle area back into view on the board; use Arrange to repack the visible tray pieces.

Start with the edges

Choose Edges to show only the remaining border pieces. Look for flat sides and corners, then build the outline of the picture.

Edges mode showing only border pieces in the tray — Edges is a filter, not a different puzzle. Your interior pieces are still there.

Tap Edges again whenever you want every piece back. When the whole border is completed, the game automatically switches the filter off. This also happens when another player completes the border in multiplayer.

You do not have to start in one particular corner. An edge, a small connected section, or a distinctive area of the picture can all be useful starting points.

Connect pieces, then place them

Drag a piece near its matching neighbour to connect them. Connected pieces move together, so you can build a section in the tray or on the table and move it as a group.

A correctly placed piece or group locks into the picture. A piece dropped in the wrong place stays loose; it is not lost and you can move it again.

Why did this piece not lock?

In Normal, Hard, and Expert, an isolated interior piece does not lock simply because you happen to drop it at its exact home position. Its group needs an edge piece, or a correctly matching neighbour that is already locked. This gives it a reference, more like a physical puzzle.

In Relaxed and Easy, a correctly positioned piece can lock on its own. If rotation is enabled, the angle must also be right.

Move your view

Drag empty board space to pan. Pinch on the board to zoom. Use Fit when you want to see the picture area again. On a computer, use the mouse to drag pieces and empty space; the wheel changes zoom over the workspace.

A guide to the tools

Control	What it does
Exit	Saves your local puzzle and returns to the library.
Preview	Shows the complete picture so you can compare colours, shapes, and details.
Hint	Helps locate a piece's target area when the chosen difficulty allows hints.
Edges	Filters the loose pieces to the border. Choose it again to show all pieces.
Fit	Fits the puzzle area to the board view.
Turn left / Turn right	Turns the selected piece or group when rotation is part of the puzzle.
Look	Cycles the available table backgrounds without changing the puzzle.
Arrange	Reorganises the visible pieces in the tray, including manually moved pieces.
Up/down tray handle	Changes how much screen space belongs to the tray.

On smaller screens, some tools may be in a scrollable section of the left rail. Tool availability depends on the puzzle's difficulty and current state.

Choose your kind of challenge

The number of pieces and the difficulty are separate choices. A larger puzzle gives you more pieces to find; difficulty changes their shapes and the help you receive.

More distinctive shapes make matching easier. Relaxed and Easy use the largest, most varied tabs and sockets, with irregular piece outlines. Harder modes make the cuts more alike, so you rely more on the picture and less on a recognisable shape.

Mode	Piece shapes	Help and locking
Relaxed	Large tabs and deep sockets, with the most variation in shape, size, position, and the underlying grid.	A faint black-and-white picture guide, no rotation, and independent home snapping.
Easy	The same distinctive, highly varied shapes as Relaxed.	No picture guide underneath. No rotation, with hints and independent home snapping still available.
Normal	Medium-sized tabs and sockets with moderate variation and a more regular grid.	No picture guide or rotation. Pieces need an edge or locked-neighbour reference to lock.
Hard	Smaller tabs and sockets, less variation, and a nearly regular grid. Pieces look more alike.	No picture guide or rotation, with the same reference-based locking rule.
Expert	The smallest, uniform tabs and sockets on a regular grid, with no shape, size, or position variation.	No picture guide or hints. Quarter-turn rotation, with reference-based locking.

Preview remains available in every mode. The setup screen lets you compare the cuts before you start. These presets apply to new puzzles; existing saves keep their original cut and assistance settings.

Leave a puzzle. Come back to it.

Local puzzles save as you play. Choose Exit, then select Resume beside that puzzle in the Library when you are ready to continue. You can keep more than one puzzle in progress.

Puzzle library with several in-progress puzzles, Resume buttons and progress percentages — Your library keeps separate progress for each local puzzle.

Once a picture has been downloaded and cached, it can be used offline. A first download, multiplayer, and sending or receiving a new hosted card need an internet connection.

Make the table comfortable

In Settings you can adjust sound effects, haptic feedback, reduced motion, high-contrast piece edges, and the gesture threshold. You can also replay the guided puzzle.

Try a larger piece size, a taller tray, and a table background that gives the picture enough contrast. Rotate the device to find a layout you like; the board and tray adapt without losing progress.

These options do not mean the game has full screen-reader or switch-control support. Tell us what would make it easier for you to play.

Get help Play with someone Send a puzzle card