How to Play Jigsaw Puzzles Online — Ruzzle Arena Guide

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.