Magic Sort! Level 874 Walkthrough: How to Beat the Hard Puzzle

To beat Level 874 in Magic Sort!, preserve at least one empty tube as a flexible transit station while systematically exposing buried liquid layers. Because this stage is designated as a Hard puzzle, making casual matches without planning ahead quickly causes game-ending deadlocks. Focus on consolidating the most common surface colors immediately, moving mismatched top segments only when an exit path exists, and completing full single-color tubes to generate permanent workspace.

Opening Strategy and Empty Tube Management

In Magic Sort!, you can only pour liquid onto an identical color layer if the receiving tube has room, or directly into an entirely vacant tube. In Level 874, most starting columns contain three to four fragmented color layers in conflicting orders.

Empty tubes are your primary resource on this board. Filling an empty tube with an unorganized color segment without an immediate follow-up move cuts your maneuvering room in half and frequently ruins the attempt.

Move Type	Strategy	Risk Level
Empty tube transfer	Use strictly for transit or locking in a 4-unit color stack	High if clogged prematurely
Color consolidation	Pour to combine identical layers or uncover blocked bases	Moderate; requires tracking lower tiers
Surface clearing	Shift blocking top segments only when revealing an active match	Low if paired with an exit plan

Before pouring into an empty vessel, confirm that the transfer reveals a base color you can immediately shift elsewhere. If a move into an empty tube does not set up a productive match within two steps, leave that tube open and look for valid pairings between existing columns instead.

Mid-Stage Layer Cycling

Once initial moves open up breathing room, focus on disciplined layer cycling to expose lower segments without spreading colors across too many separate tubes:

Target the dominant surface hue. Identify which color appears most often across the top slots. Consolidating this color frees up upper slots across multiple columns simultaneously.
Execute multi-unit transfers. Whenever possible, pour consecutive matching segments in a single continuous transfer to clear substantial vertical volume in the source tube.
Avoid color fragmentation. Never split matching colors between two separate mixed tubes. Intermediate layers must only be shifted onto tubes that already display that exact color on top.

Locking Completed Tubes and Managing Deadlocks

The turning point on Level 874 occurs when you finish your first full tube. Once a vessel holds four units of a single color, that color is fully resolved and out of play. While this slightly reduces total active column capacity, it permanently eliminates that color from your decision tree.

Prioritize the closest complete stack. Finish the easiest color first, even if it requires several temporary shifts to assemble.
Chain into the next color. The space freed by the first completed tube allows you to gather the next most consolidated color chain rapidly.
Watch for board locks. A deadlock occurs when every available tube holds two or more distinct colors and no open vessel remains to absorb transfers.
Use the Undo feature early. If you reach a position where only one non-productive move remains, undo three to four steps back. Reversing an early branch point—such as deciding which color was moved into an empty buffer—usually opens the alternate sequence needed to clear the stage.