The Edge Match Puzzle solution is Archive A at rotation 1, Archive B at rotation 2, Archive C at rotation 3, and Archive D at rotation 0, placed into cells 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively for an exact 1,000-point finish. In shorthand, the winning sequence is A1, B2, C3, D0; those values identify the cards and their quarter-turn positions. Rotation 1 is 90 degrees clockwise from the tray orientation, rotation 2 is 180 degrees, rotation 3 is 270 degrees, and rotation 0 uses the tray orientation. Two checks govern the route: every exposed outer side must carry the exact required compass boundary, and every internal side shared with a placed neighbor must repeat that neighbor’s motif with the opposite plus or minus sign. A separate release oracle evaluates all 4! × 4^4 = 6,144 complete boards and accepts only this candidate. Open the Edge Match Puzzle, follow the numbered cells in order, and use the displayed card face and quarter-turn value as placement checkpoints. Because the board never shuffles or rearranges cards behind the player, the same four placements can be replayed and audited exactly.
The Exact Match Rules
This is an original 2-by-2 printmaker’s proof built from four local cards named Archive A, Archive B, Archive C, and Archive D. Each card has four edge codes in north, east, south, and west order. The interface displays the selected face and current rotation so you can inspect those codes before committing the card to a numbered cell.
- Outer sides: Every side exposed on the board’s boundary must display the exact required compass letter. An outer connector in place of that boundary letter causes rejection.
- Internal sides: Neighboring cards must show the same motif—arc, wave, leaf, or star—with opposite plus and minus signs.
- Existing neighbors: Only an already placed neighbor is checked at that moment. This matters when placing cell 3, whose eastern internal edge will not meet a card until cell 4 is added.
- Fixed cells: Cards fill upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right in that order. There is no shuffle or automatic rearrangement.
For example, an arc-plus edge can meet an arc-minus edge, but an arc edge cannot satisfy a wave neighbor. The signs describe complementary game edges only; they do not represent a published technical connector system.
Place the Four-Card Solution
- Start at cell 1. If the board is not already fresh, use Restart. That returns all four cards to the tray, clears selection, rotations, errors, and score, and makes the upper-left cell the next target.
- Place Archive A at rotation 1. Select Archive A, rotate it clockwise from its tray orientation until the display reads 1, and place it in cell 1. It has no placed neighbors yet, so only its exposed north and west boundaries need to match the required compass letters.
- Place Archive B at rotation 2. Select Archive B, set its quarter turn to 2, and place it in cell 2. Its western internal side must meet Archive A’s eastern side with the same motif and opposite signs. Its exposed north and east boundaries must also be correct.
- Place Archive C at rotation 3. Select Archive C, rotate it to position 3, and place it in cell 3. Its northern internal side must complement Archive B’s southern side. Check its exposed south and west boundaries; its eastern internal side is reserved for the final card.
- Place Archive D at rotation 0. Leave Archive D in its tray orientation, place it in cell 4, and check both joins. Its northern side must complement Archive B’s southern side, while its western side must complement Archive C’s eastern side.
- Confirm the terminal state. Once all boundary and internal constraints pass, the board freezes and the score changes from zero to exactly 1,000. Selection, cursor movement, rotation, and placement also stop working until Restart is used.
| Cell | Board position | Card | Quarter turn | Clockwise angle | Checks before placing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper left | Archive A | 1 | 90° | North and west boundaries |
| 2 | Upper right | Archive B | 2 | 180° | North and east boundaries; west joins A |
| 3 | Lower left | Archive C | 3 | 270° | South and west boundaries; north joins B |
| 4 | Lower right | Archive D | 0 | 0° | South and east boundaries; north joins B and west joins C |
This table gives the unique final-board solution, not a requirement that every interim selection or rotation match it. Pre-placement selection and rotation are reversible, and the first distinct illegal attempt is recoverable.
Rotation Values and Fixed Cell Order
Rotation 0 means the card’s original tray orientation. One clockwise quarter turn moves the previous west edge to north, north to east, east to south, and south to west. A second turn reaches rotation 2, a third reaches rotation 3, and a fourth returns to rotation 0.
The next cell is selected by progression rather than by choosing an arbitrary empty square. After a legal placement, the target advances from cell 1 to cell 2, then cell 3, and finally cell 4. Attempting to fill a later cell before its turn is an atomic no-op, so it neither places a card nor changes the current target.
Rotating a card also does not move it into the board. Selection, rotation, and placement are separate actions: first choose an unplaced card, set its quarter turn, and then place it into the next numbered cell. This separation makes every partial board directly auditable.
Use Keyboard Controls and Displayed State
Select an unplaced card from the tray, rotate it to the required position, and place it into the next numbered cell. The interface reports the selected card face, current quarter turn, board cells, remaining tray cards, distinct illegal count, feedback, and score.
| Keyboard task | Control | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Browse the tray | Arrow keys | Move through available cards after focusing the tray |
| Select a card | Enter | Make the focused card the selected card |
| Rotate the selection | Q or E | Change its quarter-turn position |
| Place the selection | P | Attempt placement in the next numbered cell |
Focus the tray before using the Arrow keys, and maintain a selection before rotating or placing. The shared game shell also supplies Restart, a best-score display, keyboard guidance, and the Boss Key. There is no timer pressure or shuffle to account for.
Recover from Errors and Terminal States
An illegal placement is rejected when an exposed outer side has a connector instead of the required compass letter, or when an internal side fails to match an already placed neighbor by both motif and opposite sign. The first distinct card-rotation-cell mismatch is recoverable. Repeating that identical signature is ignored, but making a second distinct mismatch closes the proof board.
Several interface actions are separate from mismatch counting because they are atomic no-ops:
- An unknown card ID does nothing.
- An already placed card cannot be selected again.
- An invalid or occupied cell does not accept a placement.
- An out-of-order cell leaves the current target unchanged.
- A rotation or placement attempted without a selection has no effect.
Both deadlock and successful completion freeze selection, cursor movement, rotation, and placement. Restart is the recovery route in either terminal state. It puts every card back in the tray and restores the initial cell-one target, so the verified A1, B2, C3, D0 route can be attempted again from a clean state.
Do not expect partial progress to increase the score. Every legal partial placement leaves the score at zero; only completion of all four cards awards the fixed 1,000 points.
Why A1, B2, C3, D0 Is Definitive
Release verification uses a separate literal oracle rather than the game’s production interface or a hidden solver. The oracle maintains its own tile table, rotation implementation, boundary checks, connector matcher, permutations, and rotation loops. It evaluates every card order and rotation combination under the fixed rules, and only one complete candidate satisfies all constraints: A1, B2, C3, D0.
That result is specific to this original four-card fixture and its exact boundary, motif, sign, and placement rules. It does not claim that unrelated jigsaw, tile-matching, or commercial edge-match games share the same number of solutions. The plus and minus signs are game mechanics rather than a technical standard, and the product is entertainment rather than a visual aptitude test or cognitive assessment.
All state and drawing remain local in the browser. The game has no account requirement, external puzzle dataset, tracking-based opponent, network call, or hidden production solver. That local, deterministic design is what makes the literal solution repeatable.
Verify the Finished Board
- Cell 1 contains Archive A at rotation 1.
- Cell 2 contains Archive B at rotation 2.
- Cell 3 contains Archive C at rotation 3.
- Cell 4 contains Archive D at rotation 0.
- Every exposed outer side carries its required compass boundary.
- The A–B, A–C, B–D, and C–D internal joins use matching motifs with opposite signs.
When all six checks pass, the board locks and the display reads exactly 1,000 points. That terminal result confirms the complete edge match rather than merely a visually tidy arrangement.