Top 5 Strategies for Speedrunning 15-Tile Sliding Puzzles

1. SOLVE THE TOP ROW FIRST (TILES 1-4)

Speedrunners always lock the top row first. Position 1, 2, and 3 in order, then place 4 below 3 before rotating both into their home slots.

2. TARGET THE SECOND ROW (TILES 5-8)

Repeat the same technique for row 2. Once the top two rows are locked, the puzzle area is reduced from 16 slots to an 8-slot space.

3. FIX THE BOTTOM-LEFT PAIR (TILES 9 & 13)

Instead of working horizontally across row 3, solve the bottom-left column pair (9 and 13) together to free up the final 2×2 grid.

4. CYCLE THE FINAL 2X2 QUADRANT

With only 5 tiles remaining (10, 11, 12, 14, 15), rotate tiles clockwise around the empty slot until all numbers align perfectly!