The Core Rules of Addition Maze
Addition Maze rules require the player to start on the top-left cell containing the number 2 and walk through connected numbered cells with the arrow keys, building a running sum that must equal exactly 19 when the bottom-right goal is reached. The board is a fixed 3x3 grid with five declared passages, no random generation, and one genuine wrong-route dead end designed into the puzzle as a real alternate choice rather than decoration. Visited cells cannot be reused, walls and closed edges do not move the cursor or reduce the score, and only a successful move onto a new connected number affects the running total. The disclosed winning sequence is Right, Down, Right, Down, which visits the values 2, 4, 6, 2, and 5 to reach 19 in four accepted moves from a starting score of 1,000. Moving Down from the start is the deliberate trap, since the 8 cell it enters is a cul-de-sac whose only passage returns to the already visited start and produces an immediate deadlock.
The rules rest on three mechanical guarantees that the browser enforces on every key press. First, only an arrow press that crosses a declared passage into a nonzero, unvisited cell counts as a move; any other press is a silent no-op. Second, the running sum updates only when a move is accepted, so blocked attempts cannot accidentally push the total past 19. Third, completion requires two conditions at once: the cursor must land on the bottom-right goal cell, and the running sum must equal exactly 19. Reaching 19 away from the goal is not enough, and reaching the goal with any other total is rejected by the validator. Producing the right sum off-route is also not completion, because the rules treat destination and exact sum as a single paired requirement.
The 3x3 Board and the Five Passages
The board is a fixed 3x3 grid, not a randomized maze, which means the same starting layout, target, and winning route apply on every attempt. The top-left corner holds 2, the bottom-right corner is the unnamed goal cell, and the five internal passages connect specific neighbors rather than the full grid. The numbers you can encounter on a winning route are 2, 4, 6, 2, and 5; the only other playable number visible from the start is 8, sitting directly below the start.
Because the layout never changes, you can study the route before pressing a key. The five passages are visible as openings between cells, while the remaining edges are walls. This visibility is part of the rules: nothing about the maze is hidden or randomized, and the puzzle can be reasoned about on paper before you ever touch the keyboard. The whole layout is rendered as a semantic CSS grid rather than canvas art, and every cell announces its number, wall state, visit state, and current position to assistive technology. To experience the disclosed board firsthand, open the Addition Maze keyboard puzzle and press an arrow key from the starting 2.
How to Play Addition Maze
The full playthrough takes four accepted moves and no more. Follow these steps in order from the opening screen:
- Press the Right arrow to leave the starting 2 and step into the 4 cell directly to its right.
- Press the Down arrow to drop into the 6 cell directly below the 4.
- Press the Right arrow to step into the next 2 cell, leaving the 6 behind.
- Press the Down arrow to step into the 5 cell at the bottom-right and complete the puzzle with a final score of 800.
- If you ever press into a wall, a closed edge, an off-board direction, or a cell you have already visited, nothing happens: the cursor stays put, the running sum does not change, and no points are deducted. Use the Restart control at any time to return the cursor to 2, clear the visited route, and restore the starting score of 1,000.
The Winning Route Move by Move
The following table shows each accepted move on the winning route, the cell it lands on, and how the running sum grows at every step.
| Move number | Arrow key | Cell visited | Running sum |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Right | 4 | 2 + 4 = 6 |
| 2 | Down | 6 | 6 + 6 = 12 |
| 3 | Right | 2 | 12 + 2 = 14 |
| 4 | Down | 5 | 14 + 5 = 19 |
The arithmetic is the puzzle's only difficulty, and the route is short enough to memorize after a single read of the table. Score begins at 1,000 and the four accepted moves subtract 50 each, leaving a final displayed score of 800 for the perfect run, computed as 1,000 - 50 × 4 = 800. Any route that takes more accepted moves will display a lower score; any route that fails to land on the goal with the exact sum of 19 will not register as a completed best score at all.
The Down-First Trap and Deadlock Detection
The most important rule to internalize is what happens when you press Down from the start. That move is a real, legal choice, not a wall: it lands on the 8 cell directly below the start. The running sum becomes 2 + 8 = 10, and on the surface the route looks fine. The problem is structural: the 8 cell has only one passage, and that passage connects back to the start, which has already been visited. The browser detects that no unvisited connected cell remains and reports a deadlock immediately.
A deadlock is not a soft warning. The validator also rejects any route whose sum rises above 19, so a careless sequence that pushes the total past the target will fail for a different reason than the trap. Restart is the only honest recovery from either situation, and the rules guarantee that restart returns the cursor to the starting 2, clears the visited path, restores 1,000 points, and removes the completion or deadlock flag in a single action. There is no penalty for restarting beyond the time spent on the bad route, so treating the trap as a learning cost rather than a failure is the practical mindset.
Score, Best Run, and the Boss Key
Score begins at 1,000 and is computed as 1,000 minus 50 multiplied by the number of accepted moves, so the perfect run yields 1,000 - 50 × 4 = 800. The four-move winning route therefore scores exactly 800, and any longer successful path would score less. Because blocked presses do not count as moves, the score is determined entirely by how many real moves you make, not how many keys you press. Reaching the goal with a sum other than 19, reaching 19 outside the goal, or triggering a deadlock all remove the completion flag without producing a saved best score.
Your completed best score is stored locally in the browser's localStorage and is the only state that persists between sessions. Nothing else is saved: there is no account, no network call, no downloaded asset, no timer, and no audio cue. A double-press of Escape opens the shared simulated spreadsheet boss screen, and a second double-press resumes the unchanged maze. The boss screen is decorative; the maze state underneath is preserved exactly so you can return to the same puzzle in the same position without losing progress.
Where Addition Maze Fits Among Keyboard Puzzles
Addition Maze is a short arithmetic break, not an open-ended runner. The whole session fits inside thirty seconds once you know the route, which makes it a useful choice for a quick logic pause between longer tasks. If you want a similar fixed-puzzle keyboard game with a longer solution path, the 15 Puzzle rules work on tile slides rather than running sums, and for a tile-merging variant played with the same arrow keys the 2048 rules explained cover a different kind of arithmetic pressure. Both are useful neighbors once you have the Addition Maze route memorized and want another short keyboard game with a published rule set and a deterministic outcome.