How to win at 2048: Penny by Penny rules, corner strategy and tips

Penny by Penny is a 2048-style swipe-and-merge puzzle: you push tiles across a 4x4 board, and when two matching tiles collide they merge into something bigger. Climbing from a penny to a piggy bank and from a corner shop to a mega corp is all about not jamming the board. This guide covers the rules, how scoring works and the corner strategy that actually holds up.

Play Penny by Penny

What is 2048 and what does the Penny by Penny board look like?

You play on a 4x4 board with 16 cells. It starts with two tiles; everything after that comes from your swipes and the new tile that appears after each move.

In classic 2048 the tiles show numbers like 2, 4 and 8. In Penny by Penny each tile is a business level with its level number on it: 1 Penny, 2 Piggy bank, 3 Bagel tray, 4 Street cart, 5 Kiosk, 6 Corner shop, 7 Supermarket, 8 Apartment block, 9 Office tower, 10 Mega corp.

Tile values still double at every level: a Penny is worth 2, a Piggy bank 4, a Bagel tray 8 and a Mega corp 1024. So our goal tile, the Mega corp, matches the 1024 tile of the classic game; the 2048 equivalent is one level higher, the Space branch.

2048 rules

Swipe up, down, left or right. Every tile slides that way as far as it can go.
When two tiles of the same level collide, they merge into the next level: two Pennies make a Piggy bank, two Piggy banks make a Bagel tray.
A tile can only merge once per swipe. With Piggy bank, Penny, Penny in a row, swiping left gives you two Piggy banks, not a Bagel tray.
If three matching tiles share a line, the two closest to the edge you swipe toward merge first. Four matching tiles merge as two separate pairs.
After every swipe that changes the board, a new tile lands in a random empty cell: a Penny 90% of the time, a Piggy bank 10%. A swipe that moves nothing doesn’t count and brings no new tile.
When there are no empty cells and no matching tiles next to each other, the shutters come down and the game is over.
Reaching the Mega corp earns you a little party, but the game keeps going until the board jams.

How is the score calculated?

Your revenue is the sum of the values of every tile created by a merge. Two Pennies becoming a Piggy bank add 4; two Corner shops becoming a Supermarket add 128.

That’s why revenue snowballs with big tiles. Build a Mega corp purely from Pennies and you collect 9,216 along the way; in practice a bit less, because some Piggy banks spawn directly. Records come from keeping the board open for a long time, not from quick little merges.

A move, step by step

Look at the board: where is your biggest tile, and which directions would knock it out of place?
Find the pairs that can merge: two matching tiles in the same row or column with nothing between them.
Of the directions that keep your big tile in its corner, pick the one that gives the most merges and the tidiest board.
The tiles slide, pairs merge and the revenue you earned floats up from the tile.
A new Penny or Piggy bank drops into an empty cell. Note where it landed and plan your next move.

The opening: what to do in the first moves

Early on the board is empty and everything feels easy, which is exactly when you set up your structure. Pick a corner right away, say bottom left, and start gathering your first Piggy banks there.

For the first 20 to 30 moves, use almost only two directions: down and left for a bottom-left corner. If the board gets stuck, use right as a third direction. Avoid the fourth, up, unless you have no other choice.

2048 strategy: the corner method and the snake pattern

Lock your biggest tile in a corner. With walls on two sides, it only meets tiles coming from two directions and rarely gets pushed out.
Keep the corner’s row full. If the bottom row is full and holds no matching pair, swiping left or right won’t move it, so your big tile stays put.
Build a snake: fill the bottom row from the corner in descending order, then turn up at the end and continue the next row in the opposite direction. One merge can then set off a chain: two Pennies make a Piggy bank, which merges with its neighbor into a Bagel tray, and the chain rolls all the way to the corner.
Empty cells are your most valuable asset. Before merging a pair just because you can, check which move leaves more space.
Don’t trap small tiles between big ones. A lone Penny stuck next to an Office tower blocks the whole row until it gets out.
If you were forced to swipe up and your big tile left the corner, move it back at the first chance. If a new Penny drops into the empty corner, things get much harder.
Use undo wisely. In Penny by Penny, undo also rewinds the randomness: repeat the same move and the same tile lands in the same spot. Undo is for fixing a wrong swipe, not for fishing for a better tile.

Common 2048 mistakes

Using all four directions at random. It looks fine for a while, then your big tiles scatter across the middle and can’t meet.
Making every merge you see. Sometimes it pays to wait, move the pair to the right edge and merge it as part of a chain.
Emptying the corner row. With a gap in it, sideways swipes slide your big tile out of the corner.
Panicking in a race. Two minutes isn’t long, but a locked board freezes your revenue; play fast and keep your corner.

A short history of 2048

2048 began in spring 2014 as an open-source browser game by Italian developer Gabriele Cirulli and quickly spread to phones around the world. It was itself inspired by earlier sliding number puzzles.

Because the code was open, countless versions followed. Penny by Penny keeps the same core rules and swaps the numbers for a business ladder from piggy bank to mega corp, then adds undos and a two-player race.

How to play Penny by Penny on Stockboi

Beat your record: play solo with no clock. You get 2 undos per game, each going back one step. Records set with undo are marked. Your best score and any game you leave halfway are saved on your device.
Vs bot: you and the computer start from the same board and race for 2 minutes; highest revenue wins. Easy is slow and absent-minded, Medium is greedy, Hard looks two moves ahead and plays fast.
Play with a friend or a random opponent: send a link or get matched with someone playing right now. After a 3-second countdown you both play 2 minutes from the same starting board, and you can watch your rival’s board live. There’s no undo in online races.
When time runs out, the highest revenue wins; if tied, the biggest tile decides, and if that’s tied too, it’s a draw. If you both lock up, or the locked player is behind, the race ends early. If you disconnect, you have 60 seconds to come back.
Controls: swipe on the board on a phone. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys or W, A, S, D; in record mode, U, Backspace or Ctrl+Z undoes.

Frequently asked questions

How do you win at 2048?

Keep your biggest tile in a corner, stick mostly to two directions and line tiles up from the corner in descending order. In Penny by Penny the goal is the Mega corp, and the game keeps going after that.

Which corner is best in 2048?

It doesn’t matter; what matters is choosing one corner and staying loyal to it. Make the two directions that point into that corner your main moves.

When does a 2048 game end?

When there are no empty cells and no matching tiles can merge in any direction. In Penny by Penny we call it shutters down.

What is the Mega corp worth in Penny by Penny?

The Mega corp is the level 10 tile, worth 1024, the same as the 1024 tile in classic 2048. The 2048 equivalent is the level 11 Space branch.

Can you undo a move in 2048?

In Penny by Penny’s record mode you can undo one step, twice per game. Records set with undo are marked, and online races have no undo.

Can you play 2048 with two players?

In Penny by Penny, yes: you and a friend or a random opponent start from the same board and race for 2 minutes. Highest revenue wins.