Because on a standard board 2 and 4 are the only numbers you are ever given — every other number has to be built. An 8 exists only because you made two 4s touch. A 32 means you built a five-step chain.

The 4s are the grit. A 4 can't merge with a 2, so it sits there as dead weight until you pair it with another 4 or grow a 2+2 beside it. And your odds of drawing a 4 rise as the queue runs down — about 1 in 8 for your first block, closer to 1 in 3 by your last. The awkward blocks arrive when the board is already crowded.

One swipe moves every block at once, all the way in that direction until something stops it. Two equal numbers that collide fuse into one block of double the value.

Then gravity drops the survivors — and that fall can slam new pairs together, which merge too. That's a wave. It repeats until nothing moves. One swipe, many waves.

Each merge is multiplied by its place in the chain. The 1st counts ×1, the 2nd ×2, the 8th ×8. A long chain isn't a bit better than a short one — it's worth multiples.

Enormously — and it has to be in a line, not just touching. Same four blocks, two ways:

The column merges into two 4s — and those 4s are now touching, so they merge again into an 8. Three merges instead of two, and that third one counts triple. Three times the score from the same blocks.

⚠ Blocks side by side will not merge if you fire up or down — they only merge along the line that connects them. Those same four spread-out blocks, fired up instead of sideways, merge nothing at all. The glow means these could merge, not these will merge; picking the direction that actually uses your glowing pairs is the second half of the skill.

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