How to Play Water Sort Puzzle: Rules and First Levels

In Water Sort you pour coloured water between jars until every jar holds a single colour. Tap a jar, then tap another to pour: water can only go onto the same colour or into an empty jar, and each jar holds 4 layers. All the matching layers on top pour together, as many as fit.

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By the GameLake team · Published October 31, 2026

The rules

Goal: sort the water so each jar is full of one colour (or empty). A finished jar gets a lily cork.
Pouring: tap the jar to pour from, then the jar to pour into.
Matching: water lands only on the same colour, or in an empty jar. A full jar takes nothing.
Capacity: every jar holds 4 layers.
Order: only the top colour can move. Layers underneath wait until everything above them has gone.

Where can the yellow go? Into the empty jar (lime). Not onto the red, and not into the full jar (orange).

Every colour has its own symbol on each layer (a heart for red, a star for yellow, a drop for blue and so on), so you can play by shape if colours are hard to tell apart.

How much water moves

A pour moves all the layers of the top colour that sit together, as long as there's room. If the jar you pour into has less space than that, only as much as fits moves across, and the rest stays behind.

Three yellows on top, but only one space: one yellow pours and two stay behind.

A partial pour like that is legal, but it splits the yellow across two jars, which usually costs you pours later. It's worth counting the free space before you tap.

Walkthrough: a three-colour warm-up

Here's a small level solved pour by pour, with red, yellow and blue and two empty jars. Number the jars 1 to 5 from the left. It's smaller than any real GameLake level, but every idea in it carries over. We checked it with the game's solver: there's no way to sort it in fewer than 7 pours.

1. Nothing matches yet, so park jar 1's yellow in an empty jar. That uncovers two blues.

2. Pour jar 3's top blue onto the blues in jar 1. That uncovers jar 3's yellows.

3. Both yellows pour together onto the yellow in jar 4.

4. All three blues pour onto jar 3's blue. The blue jar is finished.

5. Jar 2's two top reds join the red left in jar 1.

6. The yellow completes jar 4.

7. The last red completes jar 1.

Sorted in 7 pours, and the second empty jar was never needed.

Three habits did the work: the only pour into an empty jar was the one that uncovered something useful (the blues), every other pour went onto a matching colour, and each jar was finished as soon as it could be. Keeping jar 5 empty the whole way meant there was always a way out.

Four beginner mistakes

Filling both empty jars early. With no empty jar left, a buried colour can only move onto a matching top, and often there isn't one. Try to keep one jar empty for as long as you can.
Pouring without looking underneath. Before every pour, check what it uncovers. If that colour has nowhere to go, the pour may just move the problem to a different jar.
Splitting a colour. Partial pours and pouring the same colour into two different jars both scatter it. Gathering it again later costs pours, and pours cost stars.
Exploring with undo. Undos are limited, so think a pour or two ahead instead of trying things out. If a level has gone wrong, Restart puts it back and refills your undos.

Your first levels on GameLake

Every level is dealt at random and then checked by a solver, so there's always a way to sort it. Each one starts with two empty jars, and the number of colours grows as you go:

Mode	Colours	Undos per level	+ Jar
Easy	4 (levels 1–3), then 5	5	Once per level
Medium	7 (levels 1–5), then 8	3	Once per level
Hard	10, rising to 12	1	No
Daily	9	2	No

Par is the number of pours in Hop's best line. Match it for three stars; a few pours over still earns two.
Undo takes back a pour, + Jar adds one extra empty jar, and Restart gives you the level and your undos back.
Teach me works out a winning line from where you are and explains the next pour, for example: "Use the empty jar to free the blue underneath: pour the yellow in there." If no winning line is left, it says so.
The Daily is the same puzzle for every player, so you can compare pours with friends.

Ready for more? Water Sort Puzzle Tips covers how to guard your empty jars, plan a few pours ahead and get out of a tight spot.

Frequently asked questions

How do you play Water Sort Puzzle?

Tap a jar, then another, to pour. Water only goes onto the same colour or into an empty jar, and each jar holds 4 layers. Sort every colour into its own jar to win.

Can you pour water onto a different colour?

No. A pour is only allowed onto the same colour on top, or into an empty jar.

What happens if the jar doesn't have enough room?

Only as many layers as fit are poured; the rest stay in the first jar.

How many empty jars do you get?

Every GameLake level starts with two. On Easy and Medium you can add one more per level with + Jar.

Is every level solvable?

Yes. Each level is checked by a solver before you play, and par comes from the solver's best line.

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