Lighting the first shrine…
No ads on the branch — just charms, chains, rime and one golden bird
Play Firebird: The Golden Grove — a free Slavic-myth tile match puzzle
Play Firebird: The Golden Grove free. A Slavic-myth triple tile match puzzle: gather the grove's charms in threes, kindle the feather-shrines, thaw Koschei's rime and free the dryad Berehya. 30 chapters, four acts, endless mode.
Firebird: The Golden Grove is a free browser triple tile match puzzle built on the Slavic myths of the Firebird and Koschei the Deathless. Koschei stole the last clutch of golden feathers, the enchanted grove is greying, and the dryad Berehya is bound to the withering Great Oak. You are the grove's last keeper: gather its charms in threes, kindle twelve feather-shrines, and hunt the needle that hides Koschei's death — the needle in the egg, the egg in the duck, the duck in the hare, the hare in the iron chest.
The loop is the genre at its purest. Every tile you can reach flies to a seven-slot tray; three alike clear at once. The chapter is won when board and tray are both empty, and lost the instant a pick leaves seven mismatched charms with no third anywhere. Two hazards keep thirty chapters honest: Koschei's iron chains lock tiles until you have matched enough charms, and from Act III the rime of his midnight horse freezes tiles inside ice that hides which charm they hold.
How to play
- Tap free tiles. A tile with a glowing golden rim has nothing stacked over it and can be taken; dim tiles are pinned under the layer above.
- Watch the tray. Seven slots, no more. The tray flashes red at six — that is your warning to go hunting for a third.
- Clear in threes. Every match scores 30 plus a streak bonus and kindles the shrine meter a little further.
- Break the hazards. Every match grinds every chain down by one and thaws every rimed tile by one layer.
- Spend boosters wisely. Three Undos, two Shuffles and two Firebird's Glances per chapter — the Glance plays your next match for you, solver-guaranteed.
The rules, exactly
| Thing | What it does | What it pays or costs |
|---|---|---|
| Free tile | Nothing stacked over it | Flies to the tray |
| Match of three | Three alike in the tray | 30 points + 15 × streak |
| Full tray | Seven mismatched charms | The chapter is lost |
| Chained tile | Locked from Act II on | Opens after N matches anywhere |
| Rimed tile | Frozen and hidden, Act III on | Thaws after N matches, then reveals |
| Undo | Returns the last pick | Refuses on a completing pick |
| Firebird's Glance | Solver-assisted auto-match | Two per chapter |
| Three stars | Win, no Undo, tray never hit 7 | The mark of a clean run |
The four acts of the grove
| Act | Chapters | Where you are | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| I · The Greying Grove | 1–8 | The moss paths and the first shrines | Pure triple matching, 36–63 tiles |
| II · The Chainwood | 9–16 | Koschei's chained shrines | Iron chains lock tiles |
| III · The Rime of Midnight | 17–24 | The frozen canopy | Rime hides charms inside ice |
| IV · The Needle's Egg | 25–30 | The old oak and the iron chest | Chains and rime together, 15 charms |
Why every chapter can be finished
Every chapter is built from a fixed seed: the layout, the charm placement and the hazards are always the same, and there are no random numbers while you play. During development a beam-search solver played all thirty chapters with exactly the rules you get, and only seeds the solver beat were baked in. The same solver powers the Firebird's Glance booster, so the hint always offers a line that is genuinely there.
Strategy that actually works
- Work the layer you can see. Most dead trays come from tunneling one column while the crown of the board stays untouched.
- Collect in pairs. Bring an icon to two in the tray before starting a third kind — singles are how trays fill.
- Spend matches on chains early. Every match loosens every chain, so chained boards reward steady matching, not hoarding.
- Thaw rime with cheap icons. Matches of common charms de-frost the exotic ones hiding underneath.
- Keep the Glance for the endgame, when the tray is at six and the last third is pinned under three layers.
Technical notes
Everything is generated: no image is loaded by the game, no audio file is played, no third-party script runs. The tiles, the icons, the hills and the fireflies are Canvas 2D drawn from the same level data the solver reads, and every pluck, chime and bell is synthesised with the Web Audio API. The rules contain no random numbers — every chapter comes from a fixed seed, so it plays identically on every device. Progress and stars live in your own browser under foresttile.grove.v1. Nothing is uploaded, because there is no server.
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Firebird: The Golden Grove — frequently asked questions
What is Firebird: The Golden Grove?
It is a free browser triple tile match puzzle built on Slavic myth. Koschei the Deathless has stolen the last clutch of the Firebird's golden feathers, the enchanted grove is greying, and the dryad Berehya is bound to the withering Great Oak. You gather the grove's charms in threes to kindle twelve feather-shrines, break Koschei's chains, thaw his midnight rime, and finally crush the needle that hides his death. Thirty chapters across four acts, plus an endless mode.
How do you play it?
Tap or click a tile that has nothing stacked over it. It flies to the tray at the bottom of the screen, which holds seven slots. When three tiles of the same charm meet in the tray they clear at once and score. The chapter is won when every tile is cleared and the tray is empty; it is lost the moment a pick leaves seven mismatched charms in the tray with no third anywhere. A tile with a glowing rim is free to take; dimmer tiles are pinned under the layer above.
What are chained tiles and rime tiles?
They are the two hazards. From Act II, Koschei's iron chains wrap some tiles: a chained tile cannot be tapped until you have made the number of matches shown on its counter, and every match anywhere grinds all chains down by one. From Act III, the rime of Koschei's midnight horse freezes tiles inside glassy ice that hides which charm they hold; each match thaws every rimed tile by one layer, and only a fully thawed tile reveals its charm and can be tapped.
What do the three boosters do?
You get three of each per chapter. Undo returns the last tile from the tray to the board; it refuses the moment that tile completed a match. Shuffle redeals the icons among all unlocked tiles still on the board. The Firebird's Glance solves the current position and automatically taps the tiles of your next match, one after another.
How do stars work?
Any win earns one star. Winning without spending an Undo earns two. Winning without an Undo and never letting the tray reach seven slots earns three. The tray discipline is the real skill of the genre: a full tray is the only way to lose, so a clean run with room to spare is a perfect run.
Is every chapter actually winnable?
Yes, and it is proven rather than promised. Every chapter is built from a fixed seed: the layout, the charm placement and the hazards are always the same, and there are no random numbers while you play. During development a beam-search solver played all thirty chapters with exactly the rules you get, and only seeds the solver beat were baked in. The same solver powers the Firebird's Glance booster, so the hint always offers a line that is genuinely there.
Does it work on a phone, and does it cost anything?
No download, no install, no account and no payment. The whole game is one HTML5 page: every tile, icon, hill and firefly is drawn on canvas, and every sound is synthesised in the browser with the Web Audio API. It adapts from a 320-pixel phone to a wide desktop window, in portrait or landscape, and progress and stars are stored in your own browser under the key foresttile.grove.v1. Nothing is uploaded, because there is no server.