Onet Pets: the three-segment rule and how to plan around it

Onet Pets looks like a simple pair-matching game: find two identical animals and tap them. The catch is the link between them. Play it in your browser or on Android.

The rule that makes it a puzzle

Two matching pets can only be cleared if they can be joined by a path of at most three straight segments — in other words, two turns or fewer. The path must run through empty space: other pets and wooden obstacles block every leg of it. Two identical cats side by side are an easy match; two identical cats on opposite sides of a crowded board may not be connectable at all yet.

That is why the order of your matches matters. Every pair you remove opens new lanes for the pairs around it.

Clock, combos, hints and shuffles

• In Classic, you clear the board before time runs out and reach the level's score goal. A match can refill the clock.
• Quick matches in a row build a combo multiplier.
• Hint highlights a legal pair when you are stuck.
• Shuffle rearranges the remaining pets when no legal move is left, at a small time cost.
• Wooden obstacles stay until the end of the level, so plan routes around them rather than waiting for them to go.

Three modes

• Classic — twenty-four levels whose grids, pet variety and obstacles grow as you go.
• Practice — no clock; the place to learn path shapes.
• Blitz — shorter clocks and double points per match.

Habits that help

1. Start at the edges. The outer ring of the board is empty space, so pets on the border are often easier to link.
2. Clear pairs that are blocking other pairs before taking easy matches in the open.
3. When a board looks stuck, look for L-shaped and U-shaped routes, not just straight lines — a U around the outside is still only three segments.
4. Save Hint for real dead ends; a shuffle costs time.

1, with animal-shaped menu buttons and separate switches for music and sound. More on the Onet Pets page, or play a level now.