Gridlock Escape

How to play

Slide. Clear. Escape.

The lot is jammed. Somewhere in it is a fire truck, an ambulance, a police car or a taxi with a call to answer, and one gap in the curb to leave by. Move the others out of its way in as few moves as you can.

A level in play: the fire truck boxed in by cars and a bus, the burning building up the street, the move counter and par at the top, undo, restart and the hint button at the bottom

The rules

  1. Slide a vehicle along its lane. Cars are two squares long, trucks and buses three. Each one moves only forwards or backwards, along its own length, and never through another vehicle or the curb. Drag it as far as you like.
  2. Clear the hero’s row. The hero (the fire truck, ambulance, police car or taxi) always faces the gap in the right-hand curb. Everything standing in its row has to go somewhere else first, and that usually means moving something else out of the way of that.
  3. Drive out. Once the row is clear, slide the hero to the gap. It drives off down the street to its call, and the level is done.

One slide is one move, however far the vehicle travels. Every level can be solved, and the level number follows the fewest moves it takes, so level 1 is the easiest and the last is the hardest.

Stars and par

Every level shows its par: the fewest moves it can be solved in. Par is not a guess. Our solver checked every position each board can reach, so par is the true minimum, and the top of the screen counts your moves against it.

Your best result on each level is kept, so you can always come back for the third star. Solving a level opens the next one.

Undo, restart and hints

Undo takes back your last move, and the move counter goes back with it. Undo as often as you like.

Restart puts every vehicle back where the level began and the counter back to zero.

Hint lights up one vehicle and shows where to move it: the first step of a shortest solution from where you are now, so it helps even after a few wrong turns. You start with 3 hints, and the number on the button shows how many are left.

Rewarded videos

When the hints run out, the hint button offers a short video. Watch it to the end and you get 3 more hints, and the first one is shown straight away. If you close the video early, or none is available just then, you get no hints that time and can try again later. Videos are only ever shown when you ask for one; there are no other ads in the game, and every level can be solved without a single hint.

On the website the videos come from Google. Where the law asks for your consent first, for example in the EU and the UK, Google asks before any ad loads; you can change your answer in the game’s Settings under Privacy choices. The privacy policy has the details.

The five tiers

The 200 levels come in five tiers. Each one starts where the last left off, so the climb never jumps.

Challenges

Besides the levels, Challenges on the title screen bring fresh puzzles that nobody has seen before, the same for every player, with leaderboards:

Fewest moves wins, then the fastest time; a set (Easy, Medium) ranks on puzzles solved, then total moves, then total time. The clock starts when you open a puzzle and runs until you solve it, even if you leave, and only your first try at each puzzle counts. There are no hints in challenges, but undo and restart work. Days, weeks and months change at midnight UTC.

Anyone can play them for practice. To rank, sign in with Google and pick a leaderboard name; Challenges › Delete account removes it all again (see the privacy policy).

The four missions

Each level’s hero has a call waiting at the end of the exit road, and you see it answered when the hero gets out.

Controls and settings

Start playing