Cozy Puzzle

Moonbeam Garden

A mirror puzzle where walking is free and only pushes count: slide the mirror stands into place so one moonbeam turns onto every moonflower at once.

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Moonbeam Garden mirror puzzle cover artwork

What you do

A cozy mirror puzzle in a garden at dusk. Moonlight shines in from the moon at the edge of the garden and turns a corner at every silver mirror stand it meets. Hazel the gardener walks anywhere on open lawn for free and pushes the stands one tile at a time, but a mirror never turns, so the puzzle is getting the right slant to each corner of the light. Wake every moonflower at the same time in as few pushes as you can. There are 15 gardens on the ladder, from a one-stand tutorial and a second tutorial with a pond to 7x7 gardens with five mirrors. Each garden has a par, the fewest pushes that can make it bloom, found by a search through every possible push. Today’s garden is a new 7x7 garden every day, picked by the date from a pool of 150. There is no timer and no move limit. Your gardens, bells and the garden in progress save on this device.

How to play

Press Start on the title card. Gardens 1 and 2 teach the rules, each garden that blooms opens the next, and Today’s garden is open from the start.
Moonlight travels in a straight line from the moon. Each mirror stand turns it a quarter turn the way its slant points, and both sides of a mirror shine. Hedges stop the light; it passes over ponds, flower beds and Hazel.
Tap or click open lawn to walk Hazel there. Walking is free. She goes around stands, hedges, ponds and flower beds, and shaded lawn shows where she cannot get to right now.
Hazel pushes a stand one tile by walking into it from the opposite side, then steps into the tile it left. A stand only slides onto open lawn: never into a hedge, pond, flower bed, another stand or the garden wall, and stands never push each other. A mirror’s slant never changes.
Tap a stand beside Hazel to preview the push: a dashed beam shows where the light would go and the tip line says how many moonflowers it would light. Tap the same stand again to push. Tap a stand anywhere else to see footprints on every tile Hazel could push it from.
The garden blooms when one push leaves every moonflower lit at the same time: three bells at par, two within two pushes of par, and one otherwise. Using a hint caps the garden at two bells.

Controls

Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD walk Hazel one tile, and walking into a stand pushes it straight away. Space or Enter pushes a previewed stand, U, Z or Backspace undoes, H asks for a hint, R restarts the garden and M opens the garden map. Escape puts a preview away or closes the map.
Touch: tap lawn to walk, tap a stand beside Hazel to preview the push and tap it again to push. Any other tap puts the preview away. Undo, Restart and Hint sit under the garden; tap the garden name to open the map.
Mouse: click lawn to walk. Rest the pointer on a stand beside Hazel, or on a footprint, to preview that push, and click the stand to push it.
Toolbar: pause, help, restart (starts the garden on screen over; bells, records and open gardens stay, and spent hints stay spent), optional sound and fullscreen.

Tips worth knowing

Work backward from the moonflowers. Find a straight line of light that would cross each bed, then decide which mirror has to sit at each corner.
Count the slants first. A "/" stand and a "\" stand turn the light opposite ways and can never swap, so each corner needs a stand of the right kind.
Previews are free. Read the dashed beam and the moonflower count before every push; gold rings mark the flowers it would light.
Walk around a stand to push it the other way. If the far side is out of reach, another stand usually has to move first.
Ponds stop stands and Hazel but not the light, so a pond is a safe place for the moonbeam to cross.
Undo is free and unlimited, and the push count goes back down too. If a stand gets stuck where the garden can no longer bloom, the tip line says how many pushes to undo.

Accessibility

Everything can be played with a keyboard: arrow keys or WASD walk Hazel and push stands, Space pushes a preview, and every button is reachable with Tab.
There is no timer and no move limit. Walking is free, only pushes count, and undo is free and unlimited.
Each mirror is drawn as a bold framed slab with a bright face and a darker face, so its slant reads at a glance on small screens, and the preview spells out in words how many moonflowers a push would light.
Each push is announced to screen readers with its direction and how many moonflowers are lit. The garden has a spoken summary of the flowers lit, pushes so far and par.
Reduced motion makes walking and every slide near instant and stills the shimmer and fireflies. Sound is optional and never needed to play.

Questions

Can every garden be solved, and what does par mean?

Yes. Par is the fewest pushes that make the garden bloom, found by a search that tries every possible push from every position. The game’s checks replay a shortest solution for every garden and confirm that no shorter one exists. Walking never counts. From garden 3 on, every garden is also checked so that simply lighting the most flowers with each push never reaches par: you have to plan ahead.

How do hints work?

Each garden has three hints. A hint shows the next push on a shortest route from the position on screen, with a golden footprint and arrow, and a sentence saying why that push helps. Hints stay spent if you undo, restart or leave, until the garden blooms. If the garden can no longer bloom, the game says so and how many pushes to undo (or that a restart is needed), without spending a hint.

What does “Careful” mean in a preview?

The preview only says Careful when a full search has proved that the garden could never bloom after that push, for example because a stand would be stuck against a hedge in the wrong place. A push that is merely not the best one gets no warning.

What does Moonbeam Garden save?

On this device: which ladder gardens are open, your fewest pushes and most bells on each garden (the garden map counts them out of 45 bells), your record on today’s garden, and every garden you have started but not finished, push by push, so the stands, Hazel’s spot and the undo history come back after a reload. Spent hints are saved too, and today’s garden in progress is cleared when the date changes. Restart in the toolbar starts the garden on screen over and never touches your bells, records or open gardens. If the browser blocks saving, you can still play, and the game says your progress lasts only until you leave the page.