Berth Sort beginner guide

What Berth Sort is

Berth Sort is the main mode of Harbor Escape and the one the big orange Play button on the home screen starts. It currently has 100 levels, grouped into chapters of ten. Every level is a small harbor packed with colored boats. At the top of the screen a big freighter is waiting to be loaded, with the next freighters lined up behind it. Along the dock there is a short row of berths: parking spaces for boats that are not ready to board yet.

Your job is to load every freighter. When the last freighter sails away, you win the level.

The core rules

1. Boats only sail forward

Each boat points one way, and a tap sends it straight ahead in that direction. It can only leave if every square between its bow and the edge of the harbor is empty. If another boat, a rock or anything else is in the way, the boat crashes and you lose one heart. Most levels give you three hearts; lose them all and the level is over. (On the first three levels a crash is free, so new players can experiment.)

2. Matching color boards the freighter

When a boat leaves and its color matches the freighter that is currently loading, it sails straight on board. Every freighter takes exactly three boats, no matter how long the boats are — a one-square dinghy and a three-square cruiser each fill one seat.

3. Any other color parks in a berth

If the color does not match, the boat parks in the leftmost free berth and waits there. Parking is not a mistake in itself — often it is the only way to clear a path — but every parked boat takes up space you may need later.

4. Full freighters leave, and berths unload automatically

As soon as a freighter has its three boats it departs and the next one docks. Any parked boats of the new freighter's color then board by themselves, left to right. If that fills the new freighter too, it leaves at once and the chain continues — the game shows "Chain!" when that happens. Chains are the reward for planning ahead.

5. Full berths end the level

If a boat has to park and every berth is already taken, the level is lost with the message "No berths left". This is the most common way to fail, and almost every Berth Sort tip comes down to avoiding it.

How the three stars work

Every cleared level gives at least one star. To earn more, you need a clean run:

Stars	What you need
★	Clear the level.
★★	Clear it without losing a heart, and never use more berths at once than the level's par.
★★★	All of the above, and finish within the gold time shown at the top ("Gold" followed by a time).

The par line is marked with a small gold star on the berth row. As long as your parked boats never reach past that marker, you are within par. The result card then shows "Berths used", the most berths you had filled at the same moment. Continuing a failed level after an ad always limits the result to one star, so if you are chasing three stars it is usually better to restart.

Stars matter because they are the game's only currency: you spend them to rebuild the harbor town and in the Harbor Shop. Levels marked Hard double the new stars you earn there, and Super Hard levels triple them.

A worked example

Imagine the freighter is red, the next one is blue, and you have three berths. On the board, one red boat is free to leave, a second red boat is blocked by a yellow boat, and the third red boat is blocked by a blue one.

1. Tap the free red boat first. It boards — no berth used.
2. Now you must move the yellow boat to free the second red. Yellow parks (one berth used). Tap the second red; it boards.
3. The blue boat blocking the third red is the interesting one. Blue is the next freighter's color, so parking it is cheap: as soon as the red freighter leaves, the blue boat will board on its own. Park it (two berths used), tap the last red, and the red freighter departs.
4. The blue freighter docks and the parked blue boat boards automatically, freeing its berth.

The lesson: when you must park something, park a boat whose color is coming up soon. Parking a color that will not be needed for many freighters ties up that berth for a long time.

Common beginner mistakes

• Tapping the first boat you see. Before your first tap, look at the freighter queue and find the boats of the current color. Most early levels can be solved with very little parking if you start with the right boat.
• Filling the berths early. The last berth is your safety net. If you are down to one free berth, stop and look for a move that loads a freighter instead of parking.
• Ignoring the next freighters. You can see the current freighter and usually the next two. Use that preview to decide which colors are safe to park.
• Crashing into blocked boats. A crash costs a heart and, under the star rules, also caps you at one star. If you are not sure a path is clear, look along the boat's row or column first.
• Retrying the same colors from memory. From level 4 on, every new attempt deals fresh boat colors and a new freighter order on the same layout. The shape of the puzzle stays; the color solution changes. Re-read the board each time.

Hearts, time and continues

Most levels have three hearts. Many levels also show a countdown. On normal levels, that clock only decides the third star: run past it and you can still win, just without gold. On Hard and Super Hard levels the timer is real, and running out of time ends the attempt.

If a level fails, the fail screen offers a way to keep going once. On the website you can buy one extra berth with stars (30 stars the first time). Where the game is played with ads, you can instead watch an optional ad for an extra berth, a refill of hearts or 30 more seconds, depending on how you failed. Any continue limits that level to one star, and "Try Again" is always free.

Hints and boosters

From level 4, a booster bar appears at the bottom of the screen. The lightbulb gives one free hint per attempt (where ads are available, an optional ad gives a second one); it points at a good next boat. Boosters unlock as you progress: Undo at level 4, Call boat at level 6, Extra berth at level 8 and Freeze at level 9. See the boosters guide for when each one is worth using.

What comes next

New ideas arrive steadily: mystery boats from level 4, garages from level 6, rocks, locks and keys, sandbars, ice, deadline boats and fog later on. The special boats guide explains each one. Clearing Berth Sort levels also unlocks the other modes: Classic and the Daily Harbor puzzle after level 8, Cargo Match after level 10, Tide Challenge after level 15 and Harbor Rush after level 20.