How to play online jigsaw puzzles
Everything you need to know to assemble your first puzzle on Ruzzle Arena — solo or with friends in real-time multiplayer.
1. Start a new game
From the homepage, click Single Player for a calm solo session, or Multiplayer to play with friends in real time. A modal opens with all setup options on one screen — no pages to flip through.
Pick an image
Two ways to provide a picture:
- Upload: drag your own JPG, PNG, or WebP image (up to 12 MB) into the modal, or click to browse.
- Gallery: pick from our curated set of puzzle images.
Choose piece count
Presets: 12, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000. Beginners and short sessions: 50–100 pieces. A long evening with friends: 200–500. Marathon-level challenge: 1000.
2. Assemble the puzzle
The play area shows your puzzle frame in the middle and scattered pieces around it. Controls:
- Drag pieces by clicking and dragging with your mouse (or finger on touch).
- Snap to a neighbor — when two adjacent pieces are close enough, they automatically merge into a bigger chunk.
- Snap to the frame — drop any piece on its correct spot in the assembled frame to lock it in place. Locked pieces sit behind everything else so scattered pieces always stay on top.
- Pan the view: click and drag in empty space.
- Zoom: scroll wheel or pinch on touchpad.
- Multi-select: hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click pieces to add them to a selection. Then drag any selected piece to move the whole group at once. When you drop, the group lays itself out in a tight grid — great for grouping pieces by color before assembling.
- Shuffle: click the shuffle button in the toolbar to re-spread scattered pieces around the frame (locked pieces stay in place).
3. Multiplayer
Multiplayer rooms keep everyone in sync over websockets:
- You see other players' cursors moving in real time, labeled with their names.
- When someone is holding a piece, you can't grab the same one until they let go.
- The Players panel on the right shows everyone's progress as a percentage.
- Anyone in the room can shuffle, hit the chat, or change their own background color.
To invite a friend, copy the 6-character room code from the toolbar and send it — they paste it into the homepage's "Join with code" box, or simply visit the room URL.
4. Tips for solving faster
- Start with the edges. Edge pieces have a flat side and they snap to the frame first.
- Group pieces by color using Ctrl+click multi-select, then drag clusters off to the side.
- Use the "Show image" button in the toolbar when you need a peek at the reference.
- Zoom in for detail work, zoom out for the big picture.