Wish Match guide: the same wish, the same board, every time

What this game does

You type a wish, up to 40 characters. The game turns it into a themed board: a name, five tile icons, a background, and a goal. Then you match tiles on a 7 by 9 grid with five colours, collecting two specific colours before the moves run out.

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The important rule is written right under the input box: the same wish is the same level for everyone. The wish is normalised (lowercased, punctuation stripped), then hashed together with your difficulty choice into the board seed. Two players who type the same wish at the same difficulty get an identical opening board, identical goals, and identical frozen tiles if any. That is what makes the challenge links meaningful.

Difficulty is two decisions in one

Two separate things change when you go up a difficulty: you get fewer moves, and on Tricky you also get ice. So "Tricky" is not just Normal with a tighter move budget, it is a different shape of puzzle.

Every generated level is checked before you see it. A bot plays the level repeatedly, and the generator adjusts the goal counts until the bot clears it at a target rate: 0.95 on Easy, 0.80 on Normal, 0.55 on Tricky. Those are the bot's rates, and the code notes it expects human players to do worse than the bot because the bot considers every chain to its end. Treat them as the tuning target, not as a promise about how hard the level feels to you.

What the goal is really asking

Each level asks you to collect two colours. The first colour's target is about 20% larger than the second, so one of them will always lag. Keep an eye on which one, because the specials you build should serve the lagging colour.

The rule that makes this much easier than it looks: every tile that leaves the board counts, no matter what caused it. Tiles taken by a sweeper, by a bomb, by a chain reaction, or by a rainbow orb all count toward the total. You are not restricted to three-in-a-rows of your target colour.

Special tiles and why they matter

• Four in a row makes a sweeper. Made horizontally it clears its whole row; made vertically, its whole column.
• An L or T shape makes a bomb that clears a 3-by-3 area.
• Five in a row makes a rainbow orb. Swap it with any ordinary tile and every tile of that colour leaves the board.

Swapping two special tiles together triggers a combination without needing a match at all:

• sweeper + sweeper clears a row and a column
• bomb + bomb clears a 5-by-5 area
• sweeper + bomb clears three rows and three columns
• rainbow orb + a plain tile clears every tile of that colour
• rainbow orb + a special tile turns all tiles of that colour into that special, then sets them off
• rainbow orb + rainbow orb clears the entire board

The single strongest move in the game is rainbow orb plus a plain tile of your lagging target colour. In one swap it collects most of a colour goal and often finishes it outright. The second strongest is sweeper plus bomb, because the three rows and three columns usually contain a big share of whatever you still need.

The practical habit: as soon as you have a four-in-a-row, start building a second special near it instead of clearing it immediately, then swap the two together.

Frozen tiles on Tricky

A frozen tile cannot be swapped, but it can still be part of a match next to it, and every tile cleared on that cell removes one layer of ice. Some cells start with two layers, so they need two separate clears. Plan matches that land beside or on ice rather than matches that would be more valuable elsewhere, and remember the bomb and rainbow play more useful roles here because they reach cells you cannot drag.

Moves, rescues and stars

An invalid swap bounces back and does not cost a move, so experimenting is free. When your moves hit zero the run ends and you get one free option: +5 moves, once per day. There is also a plain retry at any time.

Stars are decided by how much of the move budget you have left:

• 3 stars if at least 30% of the moves remain: 7 left on Easy, 6 on Normal, 6 on Tricky
• 2 stars if at least 10% remain: 3, 2, and 2 respectively
• 1 star otherwise

Using the free +5 rescue caps the result at one star no matter how well you finish. Use it to bank a completion, not a rating.

Score is tiles cleared times 20 times the chain multiplier, plus 60 for every special you create, plus 50 for each move left at the finish. Chained clears multiply, so a single well-set-up board can be worth several ordinary ones.

Three new wishes a day

You get three new wishes per day, and that limit only applies to wishes the game has not seen before. Replaying anything from your Wish Book is unlimited, at any time. Once your three are used, new wishes still build a level, but the theme falls back to a locally matched set of icons instead of a generated one, so the level plays fine and simply looks plainer. The daily level is always available and costs nothing from that allowance.

Small habits that help

• Leave the board alone for about seven seconds and the game highlights a legal move for you. That is a built-in nudge, and it also tells you how few options you have left.
• Prefer making a four-in-a-row over clearing a three when the four gives you a sweeper to bank.
• Save rainbow orbs for the colour you are actually short on.
• On Tricky, count ice layers before counting tiles.
• Keep the retry button in mind: retrying is free and the board is identical, so a second run with a better plan is the fastest way to improve.

An estimate, since no official figure exists: a run is 18 to 22 swaps, so roughly three to five minutes.

Other modes

Daily Match rotates through 14 hand-written themes on a fixed schedule, uses a board generated from the date, and makes no AI calls at all. Your first clear of the day is the one that counts, and clearing it on consecutive days builds a streak.

Challenge links carry the exact board, so you and a friend play the identical level and compare move counts. World lists wishes by newest, most played, and hardest by clear rate, and those lists need a connection.