Stones

Every stone is cut, not stamped

Stones is a match-3 game about gems that are actually drawn like gems. Every stone on the board comes out of a shader: six cuts (round brilliant, emerald step, marquise, trillion, hexagon and rhombus) plus a prismatic star, each one faceted, refracting and shimmering on its own.

The path: 100 levels in ten chapters

Each level asks for something: free a seam of rubies, set off two bombs, reach a ×5 chain. Earn one to three stars. Every chapter teaches one new idea, and the next asks for all of them at once, on bigger boards, smaller boards and boards stood on end. Your Steam friends show up on the path too, so you can see who is ahead.

Thirty moves

A run starts with 30 moves. Every swap spends one, but big play buys them back:

+1 move for a match of four +3 moves for a match of five +2 moves for any cascade four links deep

Match four for a line stone that blasts its row or column, five for a prismatic stone that clears a whole colour. Cascades multiply the score.

The Daily Stone

One board a day, the same for everyone, and one attempt at it. Keep a streak going, watch the day's best runs once you've played yours, and finish the day to crack a geode: inside is a new stone for your Cabinet, forty in all.

Puzzles

Thirty handcrafted boards where nothing falls in. Every stone you will ever have is already there, and each puzzle has exactly one line that wins, proven by a solver.

And the rest of it

A 60-second Sprint and an untimed Zen board Ten finishes, nine of them earned: each a new look for the board and the stones Leaderboards: all-time, the Sprint, and a fresh board for every Daily Stone Steam achievements, and Steam Cloud saves that merge rather than overwrite Full controller support, plus mouse and keyboard English, French, Italian, German and Spanish

No currency. No timers. No lives to wait for.

Want more? Stones: Second Cut

The optional Second Cut DLC continues the path with chapters 11 to 20 (100 more levels with gold settings, obsidian, pearls, tarnish and boards cut to gem shapes), brings Lumen the firefly along with you, and adds 30 new puzzles. Everything above is free and stays free.