Why will this arrow not move?

Another arrow's body is somewhere on its path to the edge. Follow the whole line it points along, not just the square immediately in front of it.

Can I undo a mistake?

Yes, with Z, as many times as you like. There is also a hint on H that will highlight an arrow you can currently extract.

What are the Key and Lock arrows?

A later-biome addition: they have to be extracted in a particular relationship to each other rather than in any order.

Play Arrow Escape: free tactile puzzle game

warming up Arrow Escape…

💡 click the game once so it hears your keyboard

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Trail Blitz

Sky Convoy→

Tap the free arrows, clear the paper matrix, don't get blocked.

A grid of colorful cardstock paper arrows, each pointing a cardinal direction. Tap an arrow: if its exit path to the board edge is clear of other arrow bodies, it slides out smoothly and escapes. Weave through 5 tactile paper biomes, unlock Key & Lock arrows, and use Bomb arrows to burst open crowded paths.

Free to play, no download, no sign-up. Hosted with ❤ by GamerX.

How to play Arrow Escape

The board is a grid of paper arrows, each pointing in one of the four cardinal directions. Tap an arrow and it tries to slide out of the board the way it is pointing: if nothing blocks that path to the edge, it escapes; if another arrow's body is in the way, it does not move. Clearing the board therefore means working out the order, because every arrow you remove opens paths for others. Z undoes your last move and H highlights something extractable if you are stuck. Later biomes add Key and Lock arrows, which must be taken in a particular relationship, and Bomb arrows, which clear a congested area outright.

Tips

Work from the edges inward. Arrows near a border have the shortest exit paths and are what unblock the middle.
Look along the arrow's whole line, not at the square in front of it. A single body anywhere between it and the edge is enough to stop it.
Undo is free and unlimited. Trying a move to see what it opens costs nothing.
Save bombs for genuine deadlocks. Most crowded-looking boards resolve with ordering alone.
If nothing moves, the arrow you need is usually one you dismissed as pointing the wrong way - check its full path again.

About Arrow Escape

Arrow Escape is an unblocking puzzle in the family of sliding-block games, with the useful simplification that every piece moves in exactly one direction and either leaves the board or does nothing. That removes partial moves entirely, which makes the state space discrete and the reasoning clean: you are not nudging things around, you are choosing an order. The paper-craft presentation is not incidental - real cardstock texture, soft shadows and a satisfying slide give each extraction a physicality that makes a fundamentally abstract puzzle pleasant to touch, and the five biomes exist to keep that texture varied over a long session. Undo being unlimited is the right call for a puzzle whose difficulty is combinatorial rather than dexterous.

What you need

Graphics: WebGL, which every browser from the last decade has switched on already
Controls: Keyboard or touchscreen
On a phone: Yes
Install: Nothing. It runs in this tab.

Questions

Why will this arrow not move?: Another arrow's body is somewhere on its path to the edge. Follow the whole line it points along, not just the square immediately in front of it.
Can I undo a mistake?: Yes, with Z, as many times as you like. There is also a hint on H that will highlight an arrow you can currently extract.
What are the Key and Lock arrows?: A later-biome addition: they have to be extracted in a particular relationship to each other rather than in any order.