How to play Sweet Match

The board is 7 columns wide and 8 rows tall and holds six kinds of dessert:

Glazed donut

Cupcake

Strawberry

Lemon tart

Mint candy

Swap two neighbors. Tap a dessert and then the one directly above, below, left or right of it. You can also swipe or drag a dessert toward its neighbor.
Make a line of three or more. A swap only counts if it creates a horizontal or vertical run of at least three identical desserts. If it does not, the two desserts slide back and you keep your move.
Watch the cascade. Matched desserts pop, everything above drops down, and new desserts fall in from the top. Any new runs that form clear automatically, and each step of the chain is worth more.
Finish the goal in time. Every valid swap uses one move. Meet all of the level's goals before the move counter reaches zero to win and unlock the next level.

Controls

Touch: tap two neighboring desserts, or swipe one toward the other.
Mouse: click two neighboring desserts, or drag one toward the other.
Keyboard: move around the board with the arrow keys, press Enter or Space to pick up a dessert, then press an arrow key to swap it in that direction. Escape puts it back down.

The buttons above the board mute or unmute the sound, restart the current level, and open the level select screen. If you stop for about six seconds, one possible swap gently pulses as a hint. If the board ever runs out of possible swaps it reshuffles on its own, and that costs you nothing.

Scoring

Points are counted per run, then multiplied by how deep into a cascade the run happened.

Run	From your swap	2nd cascade step	3rd cascade step
3 in a row	30	60	90
4 in a row	60	120	180
5 in a row	100	200	300

Every dessert in a run is worth 10 points.
A run of four adds a 20-point bonus, and a run of five or more adds a50-point bonus.
The run's total is multiplied by the cascade step: ×1 for the runs your swap creates, ×2 for runs formed by the first drop, ×3 for the next, and so on with no upper limit.
When one swap completes a row and a column at the same time, both runs are scored, so the dessert they share counts twice for points.
Winning with moves to spare adds 50 points per unused move to your final score.

How stars are awarded

Clearing a level always earns one star. Finish with at least 10% of the level's moves unused (rounded up) for two stars, and at least 25% unused for three. The exact numbers for each level are in the table below. Your best score and best star rating for every level are saved in this browser.

Goals and levels

There are 12 levels and two kinds of goal. A score goal asks you to reach a point total. A collect goal asks you to clear a set number of one specific dessert, shown above the board with a counter of how many are still needed. Desserts cleared by cascades count toward collect goals too. Collect goals first appear on level 4. In all, 5 levels are score only, 3 are collect only, and 4 ask for both.

Level	Moves	Goal	Moves left for 2 stars	Moves left for 3 stars
1	20	Score 900 points	2	5
2	20	Score 1,100 points	2	5
3	22	Score 1,400 points	3	6
4	22	Collect 15 Glazed donut	3	6
5	24	Score 1,700 points	3	6
6	24	Collect 16 Strawberry and Collect 16 Cookie	3	6
7	24	Score 1,700 points and Collect 17 Cupcake	3	6
8	25	Score 2,000 points	3	7
9	25	Score 2,000 points and Collect 20 Lemon tart	3	7
10	26	Collect 20 Mint candy and Collect 20 Glazed donut and Collect 20 Cupcake	3	7
11	26	Score 2,300 points and Collect 19 Strawberry and Collect 19 Lemon tart	3	7
12	28	Score 2,800 points and Collect 21 Cookie and Collect 21 Mint candy	3	7

A level ends as soon as every goal is met and the board has settled, so unused moves turn straight into bonus points and stars. Level 12 is the toughest: score 2,800 points and collect 21 cookie and collect 21 mint candy in 28 moves (an average of 100 points per move). Expect to need a few attempts.

Sweet Match strategy tips

Play low on the board. A match near the bottom shifts far more desserts than one at the top, which gives new runs more chances to form. Cascade steps are multiplied, so a plain three on the second step is already worth 60 points instead of 30.
Look for fours and fives first. Four in a row scores 60 and five scores100, compared with 30 for a basic three, all for the same single move.
Hunt for corner shapes. A swap that finishes a row and a column together (an L or T shape) scores both runs. Two threes made this way are worth 60 points.
On collect levels, chase the counter. Only the desserts shown above the board matter for a collect goal. A three of the right dessert moves you forward; a five of the wrong one does not. When a level has both kinds of goal, the points usually arrive on their own while you collect, so check the score once the counters hit zero.
Test freely, since failed swaps cost nothing. A swap that makes no match slides back and keeps your move, so there is no penalty for trying one you are unsure about.
Stop as soon as you can. Stars depend on moves left over, and each unused move is worth50 points. If one swap would finish the goal, take it rather than setting up something bigger.

More games on Cozy Kitchen Arcade

If you would rather race the clock than count moves, try Cozy Kitchen Rush, our time-management cooking game. For something calmer, Kitchen Memory is a card-matching game with three difficulty settings. You can see everything on the games page, and the How to Play guide covers the controls for every game on the site.