What is the key to solving slider puzzles?

I am doing the Monkey Madness quest on Runescape and I can not figure out how to do the puzzle! I am also not spending 200K just to have the puzzle done for me. Is there a secret or key to this slider puzzle? Everyone else says it is very easy to do the slider puzzle, but I just SUCK at slider puzzles. I REALLY need help. PELASE HELP!

What is the key to solving slider puzzles?
Tips





1) Plan your moves in advance, you'll start seeing where exactly you need to move pieces to get it to match





2) Try breaking it up to parts, don't try to complete the puzzle in 1 go. See if you can complete a corner.
Reply:I am not familiar with the monkey madness puzzle. but if it is like the age old "15" puzzle consisting of a grid of 15 tiles locked together and slid-able; here's my approach...





first slide tiles around to put together the bottom row 12,13,14,15. 14 and 15 will take some special attention. but it will be the same for the rest of the puzzle.





work tiles around until you have some other tile in 14's spot and 14 in 15's spot. then work the other tiles around until 15 is in 11's spot.





then move the tile out of 14's spot and put 14 in it's place, and 15 trailing right after it into it's spot.





now put together row 3:


thats 8,9,10,and 11


in the same manner...


8 and 9 are easy.


now put 10 in the 11's place and 11 in the 7's place (above the 11)


move the other tile out from the 10's place and put the 10 in it's place, and the 11 will follow into it's place.





now here's a little "twist" literaly twist the puzzle 90 deg CW.





we want to put in 3 and 7. do this by putting some other tile in the 7's place, and put 7 in the 3's place, and then put 3 in the 2's place. move the tile out of the 7's place and put 7 there. and move 3 from the 2's place. to where it belongs.


now put some other tile in the 6's place and put 6 in the 2's place. put 2 in the 1's place and do the same switcheroo...


move out the odd tile from 6's place, and put 6 there then put 2 in it's place. the rest, 1,4,and 5 can be put right by just moving them around.





sometimes it dificult to get the tiles where you want them.


work in a group of 6, one of which is empty. (5 tiles)


the top 4 can rotate to position any tiles in place. where the bottom 2 places are targets. once you have a desired tile in the middle shared 2 places, they can be moved up or down. put the desired tile down into one of the target places and rotate the upper 4 places to get the other tile above the first. then rotate them into place. if you did it right it wont be backwards.





larger grids are done the same way... only the last two tiles of any given row require the special move to get them right.


except when you get to the last two rows... then you are solving two rows at once.





i am assuming that the missing tile is in the upper left corner. if it is not, then you will have to work in the other direction. always ending at the corner with the missing tile (like painting yourself into a corner)


hope this helps out.



visual arts