Stuck? How to get unstuck

The first thing to know is that Berth Sort is not a reflexes game. Every boat sails in a straight line, every freighter shows its colour and seat count, and nothing is hidden except mystery boats and fog. If you are stuck, the board is telling you what to do — you just have not read the right part of it yet. Work through these checks in order.

1. Look at the arrow on each boat

Every boat carries a small arrow at its bow. That arrow is the boat's entire route: it sails that way until it reaches open water, a berth or something solid. Before you tap anything, follow the arrow with your eye and ask two questions: where does this boat end up? and what is standing in its way? Most "random" crashes happen because a player assumed a boat was pointed at the exit when it was pointed at a rock, a barrel or another boat.

If a lane looks open but a boat still refuses to move, trace the lane square by square. Something is blocking it further along, and that something is your next target.

2. Clear the exit lane first

The boats nearest the open water are the cheapest to move, and moving them opens the lanes behind them. Start at the exit and work inward. In most levels the first few moves should almost be automatic: send out whatever can leave, and watch which lanes that opens.

A useful habit is to count how many boats can leave right now. If the number is zero, your job is to make one of them able to leave, not to park something at random.

3. Do not park a boat just because you can

A berth is the most valuable thing on the board. Parking a boat that does not match the current freighter costs you a slot and, worse, hides that boat's colour from your plan. Only park when the boat is in the way of something better, when it is a colour you know is coming later, or when you genuinely have a spare berth.

Remember that a boat which appears blocked may simply need one other boat moved first. Try to solve a jam by opening a lane before you spend a berth on it.

4. Save berths for the colours that are coming

Look at the freighter queue, not just the freighter in port. If the next two freighters are blue and green, then a red boat is dead weight for a while: parking it now may leave you with no room when the blue boats need somewhere to wait. Count the boats of each colour and compare that with the queue. The colour with the most boats left and the furthest-away freighter is the one that will hurt you.

When a level has a big freighter later in the queue, keep a little of every colour for it. Spending a colour completely before that freighter arrives is one of the most common ways to lose a level that looked easy.

5. Use Undo before you use anything else

Undo is the cheapest booster and the one most players forget. If a board suddenly feels wrong, step back one or two moves and look again: the mistake is usually the move that filled the last convenient berth, not the crash that followed. Undo also shows you the previous board without the pressure of "what now", which is often enough to spot the lane you missed.

Extra berth is the right second choice when the board is simply too tight: it does not change the puzzle, it gives your plan room to breathe. Read the boosters guide for what each item does and when it is worth the stars.

6. Make retries count: the board stays the same

After you fail a level, the first two retries keep the same board. That is a gift: you can replay the exact position, try a different first move, and see immediately whether your theory was right. Do not restart from the harbour — use the retry on the fail screen and change one decision at a time.

If you lose twice in a row, the game offers one free hint at the start of the next attempt. Take it. The hint points at a move that keeps the level solvable, which is usually the move you have been avoiding because it looks wasteful.

7. Learn the piece that is beating you

If the same kind of obstacle keeps ending your run, the problem is knowledge, not skill. Locks, ice, sandbars, deadline boats, fog, drawbridges, cranes, barrels, buoys and the newer special-level pieces each have one rule that makes them manageable. The special boats and obstacles guide explains each one, including which booster works on it and which does not.

8. Know when to stop retrying

Three attempts on the same board is usually enough to prove whether your plan works. If the same move keeps failing, the issue is earlier than you think: go back to the first two moves and rebuild the order from there. If the level is marked Hard or Super Hard, the hard levels guide has a longer version of this method, and the Berth Sort beginner guide covers the base rules if you are unsure how stars and par work.

Finally, a small thing that saves a lot of hearts: tapping a blocked boat never costs a heart. It only wobbles. You can test what is locked, iced or hidden without paying for it — only a real crash, when a free boat sails into something, costs a heart.