Sortcery — Free Daily Grouping & Ordering Puzzle

What Sortcery is

Sortcery is a free daily puzzle that layers two mechanics on each other: grouping and ordering. Each day you get sixteen items in a four-by-four grid. Four hidden categories each contain four items, and each category also has a specific correct order. Sortcery is harder than a pure grouping puzzle because finding the four sets is only half the work — sorting them correctly is the other half.

How to play

Identify four items that belong to one hidden category and lock them in.
Once a set is locked, the items rearrange so you can sort them by dragging.
The category clue stays hidden — order has to be inferred from the items themselves.
Solve all four sets and order them correctly to finish the puzzle.

Example puzzle (walkthrough)

Imagine the grid contains these sixteen items:

PUPPY   DOG     SENIOR DOG    OLD DOG
KITTEN  CAT     ELDER CAT     AGED CAT
WHISPER SPEAK   YELL          SCREAM
INCH    FOOT    YARD          MILE

The grouping step finds four categories. The ordering step sorts each:

Dog ages: PUPPY → DOG → SENIOR DOG → OLD DOG (chronological)
Cat ages: KITTEN → CAT → ELDER CAT → AGED CAT (chronological)
Voice volume: WHISPER → SPEAK → YELL → SCREAM (intensity)
Length: INCH → FOOT → YARD → MILE (size)

Real Sortcery puzzles use trickier groupings where the order rule is not obvious until you commit to the set.

Scoring and win condition

No timer — Sortcery is purely a thinking puzzle.
Wrong groups unlock so you can try again. You are not penalized heavily.
Wrong order shows where you went wrong so you can fix it.
Win condition: all four sets identified and sorted in the correct order.
Streaks save on your device and sync if you sign in.

Common sort criteria

Chronological — invented, born, or released earliest to latest
Size — smallest to largest
Intensity — mildest to strongest
Logical sequence — life stages, recipe steps, or alphabetical order
Frequency — rarest to most common

Tips for solving

Solve the easiest group first. Locking in one correct set narrows the grid quickly.
When two items obviously belong together but a third is missing, scan the remaining tiles for tangential matches — Sortcery often uses creative category definitions.
For ordering, anchor at the extreme — biggest, oldest, or first — and the middle becomes clearer.
Lock in your best guess if unsure. The cost of a wrong attempt is small.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sortcery free?

Yes. Sortcery is free with no account required. Sign-in is optional and only used for cross-device streak syncing.

How long does Sortcery take?

Most players finish in five to eight minutes.

How is Sortcery different from Connections?

Connections only asks you to find four groups. Sortcery adds an ordering layer for each group, which roughly doubles the puzzle depth.

Are wrong guesses punished?

Not heavily. You can retry incorrect groups, and wrong orderings show you where you missed.

When does the puzzle reset?

A new Sortcery puzzle releases at local midnight each day.

Other daily puzzles

Chainlink — word chains of four with hidden ordering.
Pairadox — fast pair-matching against a 150-second timer.
The Curator — spot anachronisms in historical scenes.

▶ Play today's Sortcery puzzle

Need more detail? Read the full Sortcery rules and strategy guide, or see all daily games at /daily-games.