How to Play Cosmic Memory

Each level lays out a grid of face-down cards. Every symbol on that grid appears exactly twice. You reveal two cards at a time, and if they show the same symbol they stay face-up permanently. Clear every pair and the level is complete.

That is the whole game in one sentence, but the interesting part is what happens in between: remembering where you saw a symbol two turns ago, deciding whether to chase a pair you are sure about or reveal something new, and doing it before the countdown runs out on the timed levels.

From the home screen, choose Start Journey. That opens the level map, which shows all 100 levels. Levels you have not reached yet are locked, so the first time you play only level 1 is selectable. Tap it and the board appears immediately.

Level 1 is a 2×2 grid: four cards, two pairs, no countdown. Levels 1 to 9 are all untimed, which gives you room to learn the rhythm of the game before any pressure is added. The header still shows a clock, but on those levels it counts upwards so you can see how long you took.

Flipping works the same way in every mode:

• Select a card to turn it face-up.
• Select a second card. The board briefly locks while the two are compared.
• If they match, both cards stay revealed for the rest of the level and the pair is removed from play. Your move counter goes up and you carry straight on.
• If they do not match, the pair flashes as a mismatch and both cards turn back over after a short pause. Nothing else is lost — there are no lives and no penalty beyond the time that passed.

You cannot select a third card while two are being compared, and already-matched cards cannot be selected again. The short lock is deliberate: it gives you a moment to register what you just saw, which is exactly the information you need later.

From level 10 onwards, levels have a time limit. It appears as a horizontal bar directly under the header that shrinks as the seconds pass. The bar is orange while you have plenty of time and shifts to a glowing red once you drop below roughly a third of the allowance. The exact remaining time is also shown as a badge in the header.

On smaller boards a second, larger timer is shown below the grid so it stays in your field of view while you are looking at cards rather than at the top of the screen.

If the bar empties before you clear the board, the level ends as a failure. You are then offered two choices: restart the level from a fresh shuffle, or reclaim the position you were in. Reclaiming restores the board exactly as it was, along with your remaining time, move count and elapsed time. See Power-ups and Rewards for how that works and what it costs.

Later levels also add a move limit on top of the timer. From level 61 the header switches from counting your moves to counting the moves you have left.

When the last pair is matched, confetti fires and a completion panel appears. It shows your finish time and your move count, and it offers a button to continue to the next level. Completing a level unlocks the next one on the map and adds to your streak counter, shown as a flame in the header.

Completing a level also gives you a 50% chance of earning a reward. When you win one, it is announced in the completion panel and added to your Rewards inventory. Rewards are not guaranteed on every clear, so a run of levels without one is normal.

Progress is saved in your browser's local storage. That covers the highest level you have unlocked, the full list of levels you have completed, your best time for each level, your reward inventory, your chosen card back, and whether music is muted.

There is no account and no sign-in. The upside is that you can start playing instantly; the trade-off is that progress belongs to one browser on one device. Clearing site data, using private browsing, or switching to another browser will start you from level 1 again. Levels and Progression covers this in more detail.

Replaying a level you have already completed is always allowed. If you finish faster than before, the new time replaces the old one; a slower run leaves your record untouched.

Desktop

• Click a card to flip it.
• Tab moves focus between interactive controls, and Enter or Space activates them.
• The speaker button in the header mutes or unmutes the background music.
• The Map link in the top left returns you to the level map at any time.

Touchscreens

• Tap a card to flip it. There are no swipes or long-presses to learn.
• Matches and mismatches produce a short vibration on devices that support it, which is a useful cue when you are playing with sound off.
• The grid scales to the width of your screen, so larger boards stay tappable.

Sound and music

A lo-fi background track plays while you are in the game, alongside short tones for flipping, matching, missing and winning. Both are covered by the single mute control, which is available in the in-game header and in the Settings panel on the level map. The music also pauses on its own whenever you switch to another tab and resumes when you come back.

1. Open the level map and select level 1.
2. Flip the top-left card. Note the symbol.
3. Flip the card next to it. If it matches, you have already cleared half the board. If not, both flip back — but you now know two positions.
4. Flip one of the two cards you have not seen. Because there are only two pairs, whatever it shows tells you where its partner must be.
5. Finish the pair, then clear the remaining two cards.
6. Read the completion panel, then continue. Level 2 moves to a 2×3 grid, and level 4 steps up to 3×4.

By level 10 the board is a 4×4 grid with a 75-second limit, which is the point where the habits you build early start to matter.

• Flipping too fast. Speed feels productive but wastes the information you are being shown. A card you did not really look at is a card you will have to flip again.
• Remembering symbols instead of positions. Knowing that a rocket is somewhere on the board is useless. Knowing it is second from the left on row three is the whole game.
• Ignoring a known pair. If you are certain of a match, take it. Banking a pair permanently reduces the number of cards you have to track.
• Spending boosts early. Levels 1 to 9 have no timer, so a boost used there is almost always wasted.
• Panicking on the red bar. The last ten seconds are usually enough for two or three considered moves, but only if you stop clicking randomly.

For the precise rules, including how ties and multiplayer turns resolve, read the Game Rules. For techniques that reliably shave time off a board, read the Strategy Guide. If you want to know what is waiting for you at level 60, see Levels and Progression, and if you would like to play against someone else, start with Multiplayer.