Jelly-Belly. Make the Elephant

Jelly-Belly. Make the Elephant is a drop-and-merge puzzle with a zoo for pieces. You drop animals into a container, and whenever two animals of the same type meet, they combine and create a larger animal. Keep merging up the chain and the final goal comes into view: the biggest animal of all, the elephant.

The line at the top is what you are working against. Every animal you drop takes room, and the container slowly fills; the aim is not to let the pile cross that top line. That turns each drop into a placement decision: put an animal where it can reach a matching partner, not just wherever there happens to be space.

Small animals are easy to merge, but each step up the chain makes the pieces larger, so room disappears faster later on. The challenge is to keep the container organised enough that the big merges near the elephant still have space to happen. The playful name suits the cheerful tone of a puzzle about stacking animals.

1. Choose where to drop the next animal into the container.
2. Drop it next to an animal of the same type.
3. Let matching animals combine into a larger animal.
4. Keep the pile below the top line and work your way up to the elephant.

Keep the larger animals together on one side. Small ones can then fill gaps elsewhere without burying a big merge you are setting up.