Tangram Game: Play Tangram Tales Free Online

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In this guide

• How to play, step by step
• Controls on phone and computer
• Meet the 7 tangram pieces
• The 6 packs and how they open
• The Daily Silhouette and streaks
• Stars, par times and hints
• Tangram tips that actually help
• Tangram game FAQs
• Final verdict

How to Play Tangram Tales

Tap Play, pick a pack, and tap a silhouette picture. The dark shape appears on the board. Your seven pieces wait in the tray at the bottom. Fill the whole dark shape with pieces and the puzzle is solved. Simple to learn, hard to put down.

1. Drag a piece from the tray onto the board. Start with the two big triangles — they cover the most area and anchor the shape.
2. Tap a piece to select it. A white dashed outline shows which piece is active, and the line under the board tells you its name and its current angle.
3. Turn it with the turn buttons. Each tap rotates the piece 15 degrees. Tangram edges sit at 45-degree angles, so three taps from flat usually lines a piece up. You can also double-tap a placed piece to turn it 45 degrees in one go.
4. Flip the parallelogram when you need its mirror. Only the pink parallelogram can flip. Select it and tap Flip — or press F on a keyboard.
5. Drop it near its home and let snap help. If a piece lands within a few pixels of its correct spot, with its angle within about 10 degrees, it clicks into place exactly and glows gold.
6. Fill every corner. The puzzle ends the moment the whole silhouette is covered and nothing sticks out. Pieces in the tray do not count — all seven must be on the board.

Changed your mind about a piece? Drag it back down to the tray and it waits there until you need it. The Reset button returns every piece to the tray so you can start the layout again with a clean board. The timer starts on your first drop, so feel free to study the shape before you touch a piece.

One more habit helps a lot: plan before you place. Look at the silhouette for ten seconds and decide where the two large triangles must live. They are half the whole set, so the shape only works one or two ways around them. Once they sit right, the medium pieces follow, and the small triangles almost place themselves. Fast solvers are not faster with their fingers — they are faster with their eyes.

Controls on Phone and Computer

Action	On a phone	On a computer
Move a piece	Drag it with your finger	Drag it with the mouse
Select a piece	Tap it	Click it
Turn 15 degrees	Tap the turn buttons	Click the turn buttons, or use the arrow keys
Turn 45 degrees	Double-tap the placed piece	Double-click the placed piece
Flip the parallelogram	Select it, then tap Flip	Select it, then click Flip or press F
Return a piece	Drag it back to the tray	Drag it back to the tray
Get a hint	Tap the Hint button	Click the Hint button

Meet the 7 Tangram Pieces

A tangram set is one square cut into seven pieces. Every piece matters. The whole set has the same total area as the original square, so a perfect solve covers the silhouette exactly — if one corner sticks out, something else must be wrong. Learn what each piece does well and the puzzles get much easier.

Piece	Share of the set	Best used for
Large Triangle 1 (yellow)	One quarter	Big bodies, roofs, sails and wide corners
Large Triangle 2 (orange)	One quarter	The second anchor — the pair makes a square, a bigger triangle, or a diamond base
Medium Triangle (red)	One eighth	Heads, hills and medium corners
Small Triangle 1 (green)	One sixteenth	Ears, beaks, feet and tight points
Small Triangle 2 (blue)	One sixteenth	The last small gap that nothing else fits
Square (purple)	One eighth	Windows, heads and neat right-angle corners — tip it 45 degrees to make a diamond
Parallelogram (pink)	One eighth	Necks, legs, chimneys and slanting joins — the only piece that can flip

The parallelogram deserves respect. It is the only piece in a tangram set that is not the same in a mirror. Turn it all day and you will never reach its flipped shape — you must flip it. Many tangram puzzles are impossible without that flip, which is why Tangram Tales gives it its own button. If a slanted gap refuses every piece, the parallelogram flipped the other way is usually the answer.

6 Packs, 60 Silhouettes, One Long Climb

The 60 silhouettes come in six themed packs of ten. Animals opens right away. The rest open as your total star count grows, so there is always a new pack on the horizon. Early puzzles teach you how each piece behaves. Later ones hide the small triangles in places you would never guess.

Pack	Silhouettes	Opens at
Animals	Cat, Fox, Rabbit, Dog, Horse, Camel, Kangaroo, Turtle, Snail, Crab	Open from the start
Birds	Swan, Owl, Eagle, Duck, Penguin, Rooster, Crane, Sparrow, Flamingo, Pelican	12 total stars
People	Dancer, Runner, Fisher, Skier, Archer, Knight, Farmer, Sailor, Acrobat, Monk	30 total stars
Objects	Teapot, Candle, Rocket, Key, Umbrella, Chair, Lamp, Scissors, Anchor, Crown	54 total stars
Letters	Letter A, C, E, F, H, K, L, M, T and W	84 total stars
Boats and Buildings	Sailboat, Ship, House, Castle, Lighthouse, Bridge, Tower, Church, Windmill, Barn	120 total stars

Every silhouette in Tangram Tales was built the honest way: the seven pieces were arranged into the shape first, and the outline you see is the outline those pieces make. That means every puzzle is solvable by construction — no broken puzzles, no impossible shapes, ever. If you are stuck, the answer exists and it uses all seven pieces exactly once.

The Daily Silhouette

Every day, one silhouette is picked as the Daily Silhouette. Everyone gets the same puzzle on the same day. Finish it and your daily streak grows by one. Finish it again the next day and the streak keeps climbing. Miss a day and the streak starts again — so the Daily button on the puzzle picker is worth a daily tap. Your best streak is saved too, so you always have a record to chase. A daily solve also earns normal stars for that silhouette, so it counts toward opening new packs.

Stars, Par Times and Hints

Scoring in Tangram Tales is simple and honest. Every puzzle is worth up to three stars, and the rules never change:

• First star: finish the silhouette. That is the whole requirement.
• Second star: finish with no hints used.
• Third star: finish at or under the par time for that puzzle.

So a three-star solve means a clean, fast, hint-free run. A hint is there when you need it: tap Hint and a gold outline shows exactly where one misplaced piece belongs. It does not move the piece for you — you still do the dragging and turning. Each hint simply gives up the no-hint star for that attempt, nothing more. Par times are set per puzzle from the shape itself, so bigger, wider silhouettes get more time. Your best star result for each puzzle is saved, and replaying a puzzle can only improve it. Your progress, stars, streak and sound setting are saved in your browser on this device.

Tangram Tips That Actually Help

• Big pieces first. The two large triangles are half the set. Place them before anything else and the rest of the shape explains itself.
• Read the corners. A sharp point on the outline is almost always a triangle tip. A clean right angle is often the square or a triangle leg. Let the outline tell you what fits.
• Use snap as a test. If a piece nearly fits but does not click in, it is either turned a step or two away, or it belongs somewhere else. Do not force it — try the other candidate spot.
• Count your 45s. Tangram angles are multiples of 45 degrees. The angle readout under the board shows the selected piece position, so turn until it reads a multiple of 45 before fine-tuning.
• Save the small triangles for last. They fill ears, feet and gaps. Placing them early usually blocks a big piece later.
• When a slant will not fit, flip. The parallelogram mirror solves a whole family of stuck shapes — necks, legs and chimneys especially.
• Replay for stars, not just solves. A puzzle you have finished once is much faster the second time. Clean runs are how you reach 120 stars and open the final pack.

Tangram Game FAQs

What is a tangram game?

A tangram game is a puzzle built from seven flat pieces cut out of one square: five triangles, one square and one parallelogram. You arrange the pieces to match a silhouette, using every piece exactly once. Tangram Tales is a free tangram game with 60 silhouettes that you play in your browser, with drag, turn and flip controls made for touch screens.

How many puzzles are in Tangram Tales?

There are 60 silhouettes in six packs of ten: Animals, Birds, People, Objects, Letters, and Boats and Buildings. Animals is open from the start. The other packs open as you earn total stars — Birds at 12, People at 30, Objects at 54, Letters at 84, and Boats and Buildings at 120. There is also a Daily Silhouette that changes every day.

Why can only the parallelogram flip?

Because it is the only tangram piece whose mirror image is different from the original. Triangles and the square look the same in a mirror, so flipping them changes nothing. The parallelogram leans one way, and its mirror leans the other way. Classic tangram rules allow the flip, and many silhouettes cannot be solved without it. In Tangram Tales you select the pink parallelogram and tap the Flip button.

How do the stars work?

Each puzzle gives one star for finishing it, one more star for finishing with no hints, and one more star for finishing at or under the par time. Three stars means a fast, clean, hint-free solve. Your best result on every puzzle is saved, and your total stars — up to 180 — open the locked packs.

What is the Daily Silhouette?

The Daily Silhouette is one special puzzle picked for each calendar day. Solving it starts or grows your daily streak. Solve it on back-to-back days to keep the streak alive, and try to beat your best streak. A daily solve also earns normal stars for that silhouette, so it helps open new packs too.

Is Tangram Tales free to play?

Yes. Tangram Tales is completely free to play in your web browser. There is nothing to download and no account to make. It works on phones, tablets and computers, and your stars, streak and progress are saved in your browser on the device you play on.

Final Verdict

Last updated: November 7, 2026