How to Approach Magic Sort! Levels 1971–1980

For Magic Sort! levels 1971–1980, work from the colors you can access at the tops of bottles, and avoid using up all your room before you can reach buried colors. The supplied material gives general sorting tactics, not a verified move-by-move solution for these levels.

Plan pours around accessible colors

1. Check which colors are exposed at the top of each bottle.
2. When possible, pour a top color onto a matching color to consolidate it.
3. Before pouring, check whether the move will block access to a color you need next.
4. Use an intermediate bottle to stage a color only when that move helps expose another layer or make a matching pour.

A color buried beneath other layers cannot be moved until those layers are cleared. Focus on accessible colors first rather than making moves just to keep the board changing.

Keep space available

Try to maintain an empty bottle as a buffer when the board allows it. You can also create space by completing a full color bottle. These are related but not identical goals: finishing a bottle opens space, while keeping a bottle empty preserves a flexible place to stage a color.

If you cannot keep an empty bottle, check that your next pour still leaves room to uncover and sort the colors beneath it. Don’t move a color into a bottle with a different top color; the draft does not provide a supported basis for treating that as a legal move.

These tactics can help you reason through levels 1971–1980, but they do not establish an exact solution sequence for any individual level.