Master Arrow Solitaire Crosswise

How Arrow Solitaire Crosswise works

Every cell contains a double-headed arrow in one of up to five colors. An arrow can be horizontal or vertical.

To make a move, tap an arrow. It looks both ways along its own line — across the row if it is horizontal, along the column if it is vertical — and flies toward the nearest arrow of the same color that sits perpendicular to it.

Three details matter before anything else. The arrow always stops at the first same-color perpendicular arrow on its line — you cannot aim past it at a farther one. If valid targets sit at exactly the same distance on both sides, the arrow strikes both at once, clearing two lines with a single tap. And shots are one-way: a horizontal arrow hunts along its own row, a vertical one along its own column — so an arrow that can hit a target can never be hit back by that same target.

That rule changes the puzzle completely. A move is not simply a match between two pieces. It removes an entire section of a row or column. A strong move may clear several difficult arrows at once. A careless one may erase an arrow you needed later.

The goal is simple: clear the entire board. The strategy comes from deciding in what order the board should disappear.

What makes Arrow Solitaire Crosswise different?

Most matching puzzles ask one basic question: which two pieces belong together?

Suppose a horizontal red arrow has a vertical red arrow sitting across its row. Tap the horizontal one, and the flight clears every cell between those two red arrows, regardless of the colors and orientations of the pieces in between.

This means every move has two effects:

1. Direct removal: the tapped arrow and its target disappear.
2. Line removal: every arrow between the pair disappears as well.

Sometimes the second effect is more valuable than the match itself.

An awkward arrow does not necessarily need a shot of its own. If you can place it inside the clearing line of another pair, it can disappear as collateral.

That makes the board less like a collection of independent matches and more like an interconnected system of possible clearing lines.

The board tells a story before you move

Before making the first move, look at the entire board. Do not start by searching for just one legal shot. Instead, look for the structure of the shots that are available.

It is often useful to scan the board color by color. Look at every red arrow first. Where are the horizontal reds? Where are the vertical reds? Which ones can interact?

Then repeat the scan for the other colors. This reveals something random move hunting often hides: some arrows are much more strategically important than others.

Start from fragile shots, not flashy clears

A long clearing line can be tempting. If one move removes six or seven arrows, it feels obviously strong.

It is not always strong.

Before making a large clear, inspect the arrows that will disappear between the endpoints.

Imagine that a long red move also removes the only remaining vertical green arrow. Several horizontal green arrows may still be on the board. Without that vertical green arrow, future green shots could become much harder or impossible.

The move cleared many cells, but it also destroyed an important resource.

For each color, compare the horizontal and vertical pieces. If there are many horizontal blue arrows but only one vertical blue arrow, that single vertical arrow deserves special attention. Horizontal blues in its row can shoot at it, and its own shot covers its column; blues outside that cross can only leave the board as collateral. Using or accidentally clearing it too early can radically change the puzzle.

This does not mean you must always save it. Sometimes the correct solution is to remove the remaining blue arrows as collateral instead. The important part is having that plan before the key arrow disappears.

How do you avoid getting stuck?

Getting stuck usually happens because a move removes more future possibilities than the player realizes.

The best defense is to think about future shots, not just the shot currently being played.

Before committing to a move, ask:

• Which arrows will disappear between the endpoints?
• Are any of them a target some other arrow still needs?
• Does this remove the last horizontal or vertical arrow of a color?
• Which legal shots will still exist afterward?
• Can difficult remaining arrows be cleared inside another line later?
• Does this move create a simpler board, or merely a smaller one?

That final distinction matters. A smaller board is not automatically an easier board. Ten well-connected arrows may be easy to finish. Four badly positioned arrows may be impossible to clear directly.

There is also an important exception: an arrow with no shot of its own — and nobody aiming at it — is not automatically a dead arrow.

It can still be cleared if it lies between the endpoints of another successful move.

Strong play uses both.

Crosswise thinking turns one shot into several moves

The heart of the game is understanding dependencies between different clearing lines.

Imagine a useful red shot across a row, but one of the arrows inside that red clearing line is also the target a blue arrow elsewhere needs.

You now have a sequencing problem.

Play red first and the blue option disappears. Play blue first and the structure of the board changes before you use red.

Neither move is automatically correct. The question is which sequence leaves the better continuation.

You rarely need to calculate the entire puzzle at once. Looking two or three meaningful moves ahead is often enough to distinguish a strong sequence from a trap.

Look for high-value arrows

Some arrows are much more useful than others.

Suppose several horizontal red arrows along one row can all reach the same vertical red arrow, while its own shot covers a column with more reds below. That arrow acts as a strategic hub.

Removing a hub closes several options at once. By contrast, another red arrow might have a single shot of its own and nobody aiming at it. It is much less flexible.

An arrow involved in several possible shots gives you choices later. An arrow with only one meaningful use is often safer to resolve earlier.

You can think of the puzzle as a network. Each possible shot is a connection. Highly connected arrows are valuable because they keep several possible solutions alive.

Common mistakes that weaken your strategy

Always choosing the longest clear

Removing many arrows feels efficient, but the line may contain pieces that are more useful alive. A long clear is strongest when the intermediate arrows are difficult to use themselves or when you already know they are unnecessary.

Tapping the first legal arrow you notice

A legal move is not necessarily a good move. Several arrows may be ready to fly, but one of them could preserve far more future options than the others.

Ignoring intermediate arrows

The pieces between a pair are part of the move. Treat the entire segment as your action, not just its two endpoints.

Removing the last opposite orientation

If a color still has several horizontal arrows but you remove its last vertical arrow, the remaining horizontal arrows have nothing perpendicular left to strike. They will need to be cleared indirectly.

Sometimes that is intentional. Often it is an accident.

Trying to match every arrow

Not every arrow needs to become part of a pair. Some of the hardest pieces are better removed inside another clearing line.

Learning to recognize these sweep opportunities is one of the biggest steps from beginner play to strong play.

Thinking only one move ahead

Every removal changes several possible shots at once. After an important move, stop and scan the board again instead of automatically continuing the previous plan.

What should you do in the endgame?

The endgame deserves more planning, not less.

When only a few arrows remain, there are fewer possible clearing lines and fewer ways to recover from a bad move. Before entering the final stage, try to understand how the remaining pieces can disappear.

1. Check every remaining color. Make sure its arrows can still shoot, be shot, or be swept.
2. Protect rare orientations. A single vertical or horizontal arrow may be essential.
3. Identify the final clearing lines. Try to picture which shot removes which remaining pieces.
4. Use collateral deliberately. A final long clear can remove several arrows that would otherwise be awkward.
5. Look beyond the next move. When the board is small, it is often possible to visualize the entire finish.

If you cannot see any plausible final pair or final clearing line, reconsider the sequence.

Practice habits that build stronger pattern recognition

Improvement in Arrow Solitaire Crosswise comes mainly from recognizing recurring structures.

Over time, you begin to notice patterns such as:

• a color with only one arrow of the opposite orientation,
• one arrow that several others can shoot at,
• a long clearing line containing several awkward pieces,
• an apparently unusable arrow that can be swept away,
• two possible moves where one destroys the other,
• a nearly finished board with a dangerous orientation imbalance.

When you fail a board, look at the position where your options suddenly became limited. Usually the decisive mistake happened earlier.

Ask yourself:

Or:

This is more useful than memorizing the exact sequence of moves. You are learning the geometry behind the puzzle.

A practical mindset for every board

The most reliable strategy can be summarized in a few rules:

• Read the board by color before making the first move.
• Treat every move as a full clearing segment, not just a pair.
• Check what disappears between the two matching arrows.
• Protect arrows that provide several possible future shots.
• Be careful with the last horizontal or vertical arrow of each color.
• Remember that difficult pieces can be removed as collateral.
• Prefer sequences that preserve several future options.
• Re-scan the board after large clearing moves.
• Plan the final few clearing lines before entering the endgame.

Arrow Solitaire Crosswise looks simple because every piece and every possible move is visible. The difficulty comes from interaction.

One shot can erase another shot. One apparently useless arrow can disappear inside a perfectly planned sweep. One carefully preserved perpendicular arrow can hold together the solution for an entire color.

The goal is not simply to find a shot.

Once you start seeing the puzzle this way, a crowded grid stops looking like dozens of individual arrows. It becomes a set of clearing lines waiting to be played in the right order.