Sorta Game — the daily ordering puzzle
Put the world in order… sorta.
Three quiet rounds, five things each, and one hidden way to arrange them. Trust your instinct and see how close your order comes to the truth.
Sorta Game puzzle #35 · August 14, 2026
Three rounds of five things, each with a hidden scale to sort them by — then one last guess at the theme tying all three together. Here’s what this puzzle asks.
Round 1
Order these natural objects from shortest to longest by the estimated time it takes them to completely break down or weather away on a temperate forest floor.
- A shed whitetail deer antler
- A massive fallen cedar tree trunk
- A freshly fallen maple leaf
- A delicate wild mushroom
- A lump of fossilized tree resin (amber)
Round 2
Order these stages of primary ecological succession from the first to appear to the last to dominate a landscape.
- A sprawling layer of hardy lichens
- A thicket of woody blackberry shrubs
- A jagged expanse of lifeless volcanic rock
- A dense canopy of mature oak trees
- A meadow of fast-growing perennial grasses
Round 3
Order these physical layers of a mature terrestrial ecosystem from the highest above the surface to the deepest below it.
- The dark, nutrient-dense humus layer
- The unweathered solid bedrock
- The pale, heavily leached clay horizon
- The loose, decaying leaf litter
- The photosynthesizing canopy layer