Basic Strategies

Unlike the game of 3's around which 2048 is based, the game is not intended to be super hard to beat (3's on the other hand really is a complex and difficult game to beat). That is good news if you don't like games that tend to frustrate.

2048 is also a lot easier to learn to play and to grok - though if you ask the folks who created 3's that may be because the game is flawed in that you can usually complete pairings by simply swiping up and right until you get no more pairings, then alternate a left swipe to reorient the tiles and resume the up and right swiping.

They have a point - we have tried it and that tactic does work to some degree but it is not, as has been implied, a guaranteed method for winning every time. Still the important thing to remember is that 2048 by Ketchapp is not a port of or homage of 3's, it is a port of 2048 the web app that was created by Gabriele Cirulli.

Basics

Game play is simple: you have a 4x4 grid of number tiles based on the number 2 that you combine.

Only same number tiles can be combined with each other; a 2 with a 2, 4 with a 4 and so on.

As you combine tiles their values are added together and another tile appears on the screen. Keep adding tiles until reach 2048 or your screen fills up and you can't move anymore, at which point the game ends and you are shown your final score in points, which you can share.

The best basic strategy for playing 2048 seems to be to keep the larger tiles in one of the corners as much as possible, and as you create newer large tiles move them towards the same corner, since that almost guarantees that they will not end up trapping your smaller tiles.