Potion Shelf is a match-3 puzzle set on an old apothecary’s shelf. Sixty-four corked bottles sit in eight rows of eight. Swap two neighbours to line up three or more of the same potion, watch them pop and let the bottles above slide down into the gaps. Every level gives you 20 moves to reach a target score, and there are 30 levels to clear.
How to play
- Swap: drag a bottle one step towards its neighbour, or tap one bottle and then the bottle next to it. Only up, down, left and right count, never diagonals.
- Only matching swaps are allowed. A swap has to put at least three bottles of the same potion in a row or column; otherwise both bottles slide back and the move is not used.
- Matches pop. Every line of three or more empties, the bottles above fall into the gaps and new bottles drop in from the top of the shelf.
- Chains: if the falling bottles line up a new match by themselves, that is the next step of a chain and it scores more (see Scoring).
- Keyboard: click the shelf or tab to it, move with the arrow keys, press Enter or Space to pick a bottle, then an arrow key swaps it in that direction. Escape drops the bottle you picked.
Each of the six potions has its own bottle shape as well as its own colour: ruby in a round flask, amber in a tall vial, emerald in a cone, sapphire in a square bottle, amethyst in a heart and rose in a hexagon. You can play by shape alone if colours are hard to tell apart.
Special bottles
Longer and crossed lines brew a special bottle instead of simply popping. A fizzing bottle or an elixir appears where you made the swap if that bottle was part of the line; a bursting bottle appears where the two lines cross. It keeps the colour of the line.
- Fizzing bottle (white double arrow): made from a line of four. When it pops it empties its whole row if the four were side by side, or its whole column if they were stacked.
- Bursting bottle (gold star behind it): made when two lines cross in an L or T shape. When it pops it empties the 3 × 3 square around it.
- Rainbow elixir (rainbow liquid, no colour of its own): made from a line of five. Swap it with any bottle and every bottle of that potion on the shelf empties. Swap two elixirs and the whole shelf empties. If something else pops an elixir, it takes the potion that has the most bottles on the shelf.
Special bottles set each other off: a fizzing row that passes through a bursting bottle makes it burst too. Swapping two special bottles has no extra combined effect; they simply count as their colours, except for the elixir.
Scoring and levels
- Every bottle that empties scores 20 points times the chain step: 20 on the first step, 40 on the second, 60 on the third and so on.
- An elixir that empties is worth 100 more.
- Reach the level target and each move you did not use adds 100 bonus points.
- Level 1 asks for 1,000 points in 20 moves; every level after that asks for 150 more, up to 5,350 on level 30.
- When no swap is possible, the shelf is shuffled automatically into a layout with no ready-made lines and at least one move.
Out of moves: if your moves run out before the target, you can watch an optional ad for 5 more moves, once per level. If no ad is available, or you would rather not, the game ends there and your score counts.
Strategy
- Look at the bottom first. A match near the bottom drops every bottle above it, which is where chains come from. A match at the top only refills the top.
- Set up fours before you take the three. Two bottles of a colour with a gap and the third one step away is a free three; if a fourth of that colour is nearby, wait one move and make the fizzing bottle instead.
- Crosses are worth hunting. An L or T shape scores like two lines and leaves a bursting bottle behind. Look for a bottle that would complete a row and a column at once.
- Spend elixirs on the common colour. Count which potion fills the shelf and swap the elixir with that one; on a crowded shelf it can be a dozen bottles in one go.
- Fire specials together. Line up a fizzing bottle so its row runs through a bursting one, or match a special as part of a chain, and both effects stack.
- Keep an eye on the move counter. Finishing a level with moves to spare is worth 100 each, so do not waste spare moves on small matches once the target is close; take the biggest match available.
We tested the levels with a computer player that always takes the swap with the biggest immediate result. It usually stalls around level 15 and has never cleared level 30, so the later shelves reward planning for specials and chains, not just grabbing the largest match.
If you enjoy Potion Shelf, try Sliding Puzzle or Star Battle next.
