Can I play a puzzle on my phone without downloading an app?

Yes. Open Vcrush in Safari or Chrome. The first visit fetches the page and scripts. A browser that refuses a service worker still plays online.

Where does my puzzle progress go if I do not install anything?

Into this browser’s local storage, under vcrush:v1. We do not upload the save. Clearing site data deletes it.

Is there a lives timer I have to wait out?

No. Five lives refill with one tap. There is no twenty-minute wait and no shop selling extra moves.

A puzzle on your phone, no app store

A “no download” puzzle is a page you open. The phone already has the browser. You are not granting install rights, a photo-library prompt, or a weekly update that wants 400 megabytes on hotel Wi-Fi.

The trade is honest. You do not get a store icon unless you add the page to the home screen yourself. You do not get a cloud account that restores stars on a new handset. You get the game in this tab. Vcrush writes to vcrush:v1 and it stays on this device.

The first visit spends a bit of data on HTML, CSS, and the game scripts. Vcrush registers a service worker so a later visit can open the shop with the radio off. If the browser refuses the worker, the game still runs when you have a connection. Failures stay silent; we do not block play behind an “install our app” sheet.

Vcrush lives are a local counter. Five of them. You refill with one tap. There is no clock that makes you wait twenty minutes, and no coin pack that skips the clock. That is the difference between a page puzzle and a store puzzle that is really a shop.

If you want the Vcrush move list before you touch the tray, read how to play Vcrush. If you care why a swap game can live in a tab at all, read match-3 in a browser tab.