Magic Sort! Level 872 Puzzle Strategy Guide

To beat Level 872 in Magic Sort!, keep at least one buffer bottle completely empty while systematically cycling blocking surface layers to build unified four-unit color stacks. Committing both empty tubes to mismatched colors early creates an unrecoverable deadlock.

Opening Moves and Buffer Management

Before making your first transfer, inspect the bottom layers of every filled tube. Target colors that appear across multiple tubes and sit beneath single, non-matching surface layers. Your objective in the opening turns is to expose those buried units without permanently clogging your free containers.

Standard tubes hold exactly four liquid units. Moving a color into an empty buffer is only productive if it immediately frees a layer beneath it that can combine with an existing stack elsewhere. If a move merely shifts an isolated layer into an empty tube without uncovering a usable segment, leave it in place.

How to Cycle Blockers

As the puzzle progresses, you will frequently have two or three matching segments in one tube while the final segment remains trapped beneath an unrelated color. Freeing the final piece requires temporary cycling:

1. Identify the primary stack that needs one final unit to reach four-unit completion.
2. Locate the blocking liquid layer resting directly above that required final unit.
3. Check the board for a tube that has room to temporarily receive the blocking unit.
4. Pour the blocker into the temporary host, then transfer the revealed target unit onto the primary stack.
5. Return the temporary blocker to its matching color stack as soon as space allows.

Completing a four-unit tube locks it out of play. While this reduces the active playing field, it permanently removes that color from rotation and frees up room across the remaining mixed bottles.

Avoiding Late-Game Deadlocks

The puzzle becomes tighter once three or four colors are completed because fewer active bottles remain available to hold overflow liquid. Prevent late-stage failures by applying these rules:

• Do not split matched stacks: Never separate paired or tripled segments into different tubes unless you can reassemble all four units within the next two transfers.
• Clear one mixed bottle completely: In the endgame, focus on draining one partially filled tube down to zero liquid. Restoring a completely empty bottle gives you the transfer space needed to sort the final two or three fragmented colors.
• Track remaining volume: Avoid pouring two units of liquid into a bottle that already contains two units of a different color. A four-unit mixed bottle cannot accept any further pours, freezing its top layer until you can clear space elsewhere.