A little help for your gardens

Help & support

Kanji Universe is a browser puzzle game by Imara Games. Place kanji tiles in a small garden, press Light, and watch the flame travel along the paths each character’s meaning opens. Play instantly on a phone or computer at kanjiuniverse.com. No Japanese knowledge is needed.

How to play

Every garden has a few lanterns and a hand of kanji. Drag a tile to a numbered space, or tap the tile and then the space. Then press Light to send the flame from a source such as 火. Trees carry flame; bamboo passes it up and down; wind sends it sideways; flowers step diagonally; mountains block every beam; water stops it; a bird hops over one square. Tap any character to read its power in the journal.

Placing a tile and lighting each cost one move. The goal is the fewest moves, not a score. Three stars means the shortest possible route, two means one extra move, one means any other clear. Undo, previews and hints are always free.

Chapters and the daily

There are 96 gardens in ten chapters, plus a three-garden finale. Chapters 1-3 are free, as are the daily remix, the journal, leaderboards, undo and hints. The daily is a remix of a practice garden and changes at midnight UTC; a shared link always opens the same garden.

Saving

Progress saves in this browser automatically. It does not sync between devices, and clearing site data or switching browsers starts a fresh save. Your purchase, unlike your progress, can be restored anywhere with your restore code.

Unlocking the full campaign

One $4.99 purchase opens chapters 4-10 and the finale. Payment is handled by Stripe on its own secure page; we never see your card details. After paying you return to the game with everything unlocked, and the game shows a restore code once. Save it. In another browser or on another device, open any locked garden, choose Restore and enter the code; that browser joins the same purchase and the first one keeps its unlock. Anyone with the code can do this, so keep it private.

Lost your code? The game shows it only once and we cannot read it back. Email support@kanjiuniverse.com with the alias shown on your leaderboard entries and the date of purchase, and we will issue a new one by hand.

All sales are final

The unlock is digital content delivered the moment your payment completes. By completing checkout you agree to that immediate delivery and that the purchase is not refundable. If you paid and the game did not unlock, email support@kanjiuniverse.com with your alias and purchase date and we will make it work. Purchases made through the App Store or Google Play are handled under Apple’s and Google’s own policies, which we do not control.

Something went wrong?

Use the feedback form from the game’s footer, or email support@kanjiuniverse.com. Describe what you expected and what happened and name your device and browser; the in-game report already includes the garden you were playing.

Sound and motion

Sound effects, the ambient loop and reduced motion are controlled in Help inside the game. When your device asks for reduced motion, the game skips its animations and leaves ambient sound off.