How to play The Lid Drawer: a beginner's guide
Everything you need for your first drawers: matching lids to tubs, the Mystery Bin, Trash, clingfilm, the kitchen timer and stars.
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Every kitchen has one: the drawer where plastic tubs and lids pile up until nothing fits anything. The Lid Drawer turns that drawer into a quick puzzle. You open a drawer or cabinet, a heap of containers spills out, and you sort the whole mess before the kitchen timer dings. This guide walks you through your first few levels so nothing catches you by surprise.
The basic move
Drag a lid onto its tub. Tubs are the hollow pieces and lids are the flat ones with a little tab. When you drop a lid on the right tub, the two snap together and slide off the counter. You can also drag a tub onto a lid; it works either way.
A lid only fits its own tub when four things agree:
- Shape: round, square, rounded square, rectangle, oval, or the fancy clip box.
- Size: stamped in cups on every lid and tub, from 1C up to 4C.
- Brand: printed on the piece, like SNAPCO or TUBBO.
- Colour: a sky blue lid does not go on a mint tub, even if everything else matches.
The first levels are kind. Level 1 gives you four tubs and four lids. Level 2, "Sizes Matter", puts several round blue tubs side by side so you learn to read the size stamp. A 2C lid is not a 2.5C lid, no matter how close it looks.
Not everything has a partner
Real lid drawers are full of strays, and so is this one. Along the bottom of the screen are three places to drop pieces that do not belong together:
- Mystery Bin: for orphan lids whose tub is nowhere in the level, and for keys you find in junk drawers.
- Trash: for warped lids that went through a hot dishwasher cycle and now fit nothing, plus junk like old batteries, takeout menus, rubber bands, soy sauce packets and birthday candles.
- Clingfilm: for a tub whose lid is missing. Wrap it and move on.
The trick is telling a true orphan from a lid whose tub just has not appeared yet. If you are not sure, leave the piece where it is and match the obvious pairs first. As the floor clears, the strays become easy to spot. If you put something in the wrong place, the game tells you why, so early mistakes teach you quickly.
The kitchen timer
Every round is timed. The dial at the top counts down, turning amber and then red as you run low. You are not stuck with the starting time, though:
- Each seal adds a little time.
- Each correct drop in the Mystery Bin, Trash or clingfilm adds a little too.
- Every fourth correct move in a row adds a 2 second streak bonus.
- A mistake costs 4 seconds.
Dropping a piece on an empty patch of floor is free, so you can shuffle things around to make room without any penalty.
Sighs and streaks
Under the timer you will see two counters. Streak counts correct moves in a row. Sighs counts mistakes: putting a lid on the wrong tub, or a piece in the wrong bin. Each sigh costs time and resets your streak to zero.
Stars
When you clear a level you earn one to three stars. Three stars means you finished with at least about a third of the timer left and no more than one sigh. Two stars allows a little more slack. If you run out of time, you can retry as often as you like; your best time on every level is saved. The result card even tells you how much time you need left for three stars on that level.
New things in the first dozen levels
The first twelve levels are hand-built to introduce one idea at a time:
- Cabinets: the top cabinet tips everything onto the counter in an avalanche.
- Under the sink: lids that came out of the dishwasher faded and pale.
- The egg timer: tap it when it pops up for 6 extra seconds.
- The junk drawer: junk to trash, and a key to keep.
- The Lazy Susan: a corner turntable that never stops spinning.
- The jammed drawer: only part of the pile fits at once, and more comes loose as you clear space.
- Biscuit the cat: naps on tubs and steals lids. Tap Biscuit to get a lid back.
- The doorbell: a guest is coming, so seal a few tubs fast for bonus time.
If you get stuck
Tap the magnifier to use a Lid Finder. It lights up a matching pair, or shows you a piece and the bin it belongs in. You start with one, and you can earn more in bonus rounds. Our guide to Lid Finder hints, the Mystery Bin and bonus rounds covers how to get them.
Where to go next
Once the basics click, read matching strategy and beating the timer for ways to keep three stars as the drawers get bigger, or chapters, places and twists to see what is waiting after level 20.
When you are ready, open your first drawer and see how many lids you can reunite.