Dream Pet Hotel

The tile board is only half of what is going on here: clearing it pays for a hotel, and the hotel is the reason to keep clearing. The map of the variants takes the same rules apart step by step.

Azerion Casual Games call the second layer a hotel meta. Levels are ordinary connect puzzles — match tiles, empty the layout — but each completed one hands over rewards that unlock rooms and furniture. Decorating is genuinely open, so two players who clear the same levels end up with different-looking hotels, and the guests that move in are cats, dogs, pandas and their neighbours. The same heading covers the Merge board as well.

This is the widest build in the connect set at 1920 by 1079, which suits the desktop monitors most of the traffic here arrives on. The pull is collection rather than difficulty: the reason to solve one more board is usually the room waiting on the other side of it. Also under this heading: Lappa Connect.

1. Open a level and match tiles to clear the connect board.
2. Collect the rewards the finished level pays out.
3. Spend them unlocking and furnishing rooms in the hotel.
4. Move cats, dogs and pandas into the rooms you have decorated.
5. Return to the next board to fund the next room.

• Rooms are the reward — a Dream Pet Hotel level is worth clearing for what it unlocks, not for a score.
• Pick a style early — the furnishing is open enough that a consistent look takes planning.
• Big screen wins — at 1920 by 1079 this is the widest layout in the connect set.
• Clear before decorating — rewards fund the rooms, so a backlog of levels is a backlog of furniture.