Every Sokoban level looks the same for the first two seconds: a room, some walls, a handful of crates, and a matching handful of target squares. What separates a level you solve in twenty pushes from one where you paint yourself into a corner is what you do in those first two seconds. This walkthrough is about reading the room correctly before you touch a single crate, choosing the right order to solve crates in, and planning the exact route each push needs โ with worked examples of the situations that come up over and over inside Sokoban.
Read the Room Before You Push Anything
Open a level in Sokoban and resist the urge to push the nearest crate immediately. Spend the first few seconds doing three things in order: locate every target square, locate every crate, and trace the walls that will constrain how each crate can travel. This sounds slow, but it takes less time than undoing a bad push five moves later, and it's the single habit that separates players who solve levels cleanly from players who solve them by trial and error.
Locate every target first
Targets are fixed โ they never move, and every crate has to end up on one of them. Find them all before you plan anything else, because a target tells you where a crate's journey has to end, which is far more useful information than where a crate currently sits. A crate's starting position is just a starting position; a target is a destination you can plan backward from.
Locate every crate and its rough distance to a target
For each crate, look at which targets it could plausibly reach and roughly how many pushes that would take. You don't need an exact count yet โ you're looking for the crate that has the fewest viable routes, because that's the one whose plan is most fragile and most likely to break if you solve things in the wrong order.
Trace the walls that will matter
Walls running along the same line as a target are safe to push a crate against. Walls that don't have a target anywhere on their line are a trap: any crate pushed flush against one of those walls is stuck running parallel to it forever. Mark those walls mentally before you start pushing, not after a crate is already stuck against one.
Deciding Which Crate to Solve First
Once you know every crate's possible routes, solve the crate with the fewest options first. A crate that only has one workable path to its target needs that path kept clear โ if you finish an easier crate first and it happens to land on a square the fragile crate needed to pass through, you've locked yourself out of the level without ever making an illegal move. Playing Sokoban well is less about pushing crates and more about sequencing them correctly.
A useful rule: crates near a wall or in a tight alcove usually have fewer options than crates sitting in open floor, so they typically go first. A crate with room on every side can usually wait, because you can route around it later without much cost.
Planning the Route for a Single Push Sequence
Find the approach side
To push a crate in a direction, you have to stand on the opposite side of it. Before committing to a push, check that you can actually reach that opposite side โ sometimes another crate, a wall, or a target already occupied by a finished crate blocks the exact tile you'd need to stand on. If you can't reach the approach side, the push you're planning is impossible no matter how simple it looks on paper.
Count the pushes, not just the direction
A crate rarely needs just one push. Walk the full route in your head: which direction first, how many tiles, where you need to reposition to change direction, and whether that repositioning walk crosses a tile another crate still needs. Planning the whole sequence up front, rather than pushing once and figuring out the next step after, is what keeps you from discovering a dead end three pushes in.
Leave yourself turning room
Changing a crate's direction means walking around to a new side of it, which requires open floor to walk through. If you push a crate flush into a spot where every side but one is a wall, you may not be able to reach the side you need for the next push. Check that turning room exists before the crate arrives there, not after.
Worked Walkthrough: Three Concrete Situations
Situation 1: a crate sitting beside its own wall
Say a crate starts one tile from a wall, and its target sits further along that same wall's line. This is close to the easiest case in Sokoban: walk to the crate's far side, push it once toward the wall, then push it along the wall's line the remaining distance to the target. The only thing to check first is whether any other crate needs to cross that stretch of wall โ if so, move that crate through first, before this one seals the path.
Situation 2: two crates sharing a narrow corridor
When two crates sit in the same corridor with targets on opposite ends, order matters more than direction. Push the crate that's already closer to its target first, moving it fully out of the corridor before you touch the second crate. If you push the far crate first, you may end up needing to walk through a tile the near crate is now sitting on, and since you can't pull a crate back toward you, that near crate could become a permanent obstacle instead of a solved piece.
Situation 3: a crate that must cross a square another crate wants to finish on
This is the case that catches new players most often. Two crates both need to pass through the same tile at some point in their routes, but only one target exists at that tile. Solve the crate that merely passes through that tile before you solve the crate that's supposed to finish there โ never the other way around, because a crate sitting on its finished target is just as solid as a wall to everything that comes after it.
Looking Two Pushes Ahead
Before you commit to any single push, mentally play out the push after it too. A push that looks fine in isolation can set up a landing spot that has no good next move โ a crate that lands correctly this turn but has no reachable approach side for the push after. Getting into the habit of checking two pushes ahead, not just one, catches most of the traps that a one-push-at-a-time approach misses entirely. This habit matters more as levels in Sokoban get larger and rooms get more crowded with crates.
Common Walkthrough Mistakes
- Pushing the nearest crate instead of the most constrained one. Proximity has nothing to do with which crate needs to move first.
- Finishing a crate without checking who still needs to pass through that square. A completed crate blocks paths exactly like a wall does.
- Planning only the current push instead of the full route to the target. A route that looks fine for one push can dead-end two pushes later.
- Ignoring turning room. A crate needs open floor on the side you'll approach from next, not just an open destination tile.
- Solving crates in the order you happen to notice them. Scan the whole room first; solve by constraint, not by attention.
Practicing the Habit
The fastest way to build this skill is to pause before every push in Sokoban and ask three questions: is this the most constrained crate available, can I reach the approach side for the push after this one, and does this push block a path any other crate still needs? Those three questions, asked consistently, solve the overwhelming majority of levels without a single wasted push or a single dead-end restart.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which crate should I move first in a Sokoban level?
The crate with the fewest viable routes to a target โ usually one near a wall or in a tight space โ because its plan is the most fragile and the easiest for other crates to accidentally block.
How far ahead should I plan before pushing?
At minimum, plan the full route for the crate you're currently moving, and check that the push after your next push still has a reachable approach side.
What if two crates need to cross the same square?
Move the crate that only passes through that square before you move the crate that needs to finish there. A finished crate is a permanent obstacle.
Does the order I solve crates in actually change whether a level is solvable?
Yes. The pushes themselves might all be legal individually, but solving crates in the wrong order can block a path a later crate needed, turning a solvable room into a stuck one.
Is there a way to undo if I plan a route wrong?
Sokoban offers instant undo for your last action, so the moment a push looks wrong, undo it immediately rather than pushing further and hoping the room still works out.
Related Guides
- How to Solve Sokoban Puzzles โ the core rules and the deadlock shapes behind every walkthrough decision.
- A Beginner's Guide to Puzzle Games โ a wider starting point if you're new to logic puzzles in general.
- Best Puzzle Games โ more titles in the same category once level planning clicks for you.