The Mystery Bin, keys, the Locked Drawer and Lid Finders
How orphan lids and keys unlock the Lid Reunion and the Locked Drawer bonus rounds, and how to earn and use Lid Finder hints.
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Orphan lids and stray keys you save in The Lid Drawer unlock two bonus rounds, and those bonus rounds are the main source of Lid Finder hints. Here is how the loop fits together.
The Mystery Bin
The Mystery Bin sits at the bottom of the screen during every level. Two kinds of things belong in it:
- Orphan lids: lids whose tub is not anywhere in the level. They get saved, not thrown away.
- Keys: the little mystery key that turns up in junk drawers and, now and then, in an ordinary drawer.
Grandma's cookie tin also goes in the Mystery Bin when it shows up without its lid. Trashing it earns you a disapproving message and a sigh.
The bin has a meter showing how many orphan lids you have saved, up to five, and a separate key count out of three. Both carry over between levels and are kept with the rest of your progress.
Orphan or not?
The risk with the Mystery Bin is binning a lid that actually has a tub in the level. The game will stop you and count it as a sigh, which costs 4 seconds. A few habits help:
- The level card sometimes tells you how many lids lost their tubs, so you know how many orphans to look for.
- In a jammed drawer, some pieces are still wedged in the back. A lid's tub may simply not have come out yet.
- Match the clear pairs first. When the floor is nearly empty, any lid left without a partner is almost certainly an orphan.
Keys versus junk
Junk drawers are full of decoys: batteries, takeout menus, rubber bands, soy sauce packets and birthday candles. All of those go in the Trash. The key is the exception. Keys go in the Mystery Bin, and putting one in the Trash costs you a sigh.
Bonus round one: the Lid Reunion
When you have saved five orphan lids, the Mystery Bin is full and the Lid Reunion unlocks. After you clear the level you are on, the result card offers a Bonus button instead of Next.
In the Lid Reunion, the orphan lids you saved finally meet their tubs. The tubs ride past on a dishwasher conveyor, and you drop each lid onto its tub as it goes by. A few extra pairs join yours, and later in the game there are more of them, with a little more time to match. Every match makes the conveyor faster. If you miss a tub, it comes back around.
There are no sighs or time penalties in the Lid Reunion; just match as many as you can before the clock runs out. Every three matches earn you a Lid Finder, and matching everything earns one more. Afterwards the Mystery Bin is empty and ready to fill again.
Bonus round two: the Locked Drawer
Collect three keys and the Locked Drawer opens: the drawer Grandma never let anyone open. It holds 16 sets of containers packed in behind each other, and your job is to empty it.
The Locked Drawer plays differently from everything else:
- The timer starts short, at 20 seconds.
- Every match adds a little time back, though the amount shrinks as you go.
- A wrong lid costs 3 seconds.
- There is a hard limit: after 75 seconds, Grandma gets home and the drawer closes no matter how much time is left on the dial.
Every four matches earn a Lid Finder, and emptying the whole drawer earns two more on top. Speed matters most here, so go for confident matches and skip anything you would have to study.
Starting a bonus round later
You do not have to play a bonus round the moment it unlocks. The home screen has a Bonus rounds panel showing your Mystery Bin count and your keys. When either one is full, its Play button lights up and you can start the round from there.
Lid Finder hints
A Lid Finder is a hint. Tap the magnifier during a level and it lights up a pair that fits. If there is no matching pair on the floor at that moment, it highlights a piece that belongs in the Mystery Bin, Trash or clingfilm, along with the place it should go. Using one does not cost any time.
You start the game with one Lid Finder. There are three ways to get more:
- Bonus rounds: one for every three matches in the Lid Reunion, one for every four in the Locked Drawer, plus extras for a full clear.
- Chapter finales: clearing level 20, 40, 60 and so on for the first time gives you 2.
- A short ad: when you are out of Lid Finders, the magnifier can offer one in exchange for watching a short video ad. This is entirely optional, and the kitchen timer stops while the offer is on screen.
When to spend one
Lid Finders are most valuable late in a crowded level, when a mistake would cost both time and a star, and on power cut levels, where they save a lot of searching in the dark.
For the basics of sorting, see how to play, and for timer tactics see matching strategy.
Next time you spot a lonely lid or a key under the takeout menus, save it for later and see how far it gets you.