Merge Maestro is best described as a mashup of 2048 and a roguelike.

Gameplay is initially simple: you have eight numbered tokens, and place the numbers 1 or 2 on a 4x4 grid. Two identical tokens can be Merged to create the level above (two 1s make a 2, two 2s make a 3, and so on). Each token you place or merge takes one of your four moves before the turn ends.

Enemies appear at the top of the board, and must be fought by creating tokens. Each token initially does one damage, but that will rapidly become insufficient, so after each round, you can replace one of your tokens with a different Emoji that has a different effect, ranging from doing more damage to creating more tokens and consumable items to improving the token they're merged into. If a turn ends with four enemies present, you lose health. Survive 15 rounds to win.

Merge Maestro contains the following tropes

• All Trolls Are Different: Trolls are an enemy. Their special ability lowers the level of your higest-level token. A Converted Troll cannot be destroyed and automatically attacks a random enemy each turn.
• Awesome, but Impractical: High-level attack tokens are still as vulnerable to being Exhausted or Destroyed as a level 1 or 2 (with a few exceptions like the Statue or Troll) without some form of protection, while being much harder to replace when that does happen.
• Blessed with Suck: The Robot enemy's ability increases the level of the token that kills it by 2. This can be surprisingly detrimental depending on your strategy, for example if you're relying on a low or mid-level token with permanent buffs that will disappear once it's upgraded.
• Booze-Based Buff: Alcoholic drinks have almost purely beneficial effects (apart from very situational cases) like buffing attack or creating copies of your tokens.
• Boring, but Practical: Level 1 or 2 tokens that do simply do damage are almost necessary unless you really know what you're doing. Replace one or both of them with non-damaging tokens and you risk being unable to attack fast enough to survive.
• Crutch Character: The Converted Spider token automatically attacks 2 enemies (all if upgraded) each turn, which is very useful in the early game since it lets you do damage without spending actions, but its attack power can never go above 1, so it quickly loses utility.
• Export Save: The options menu has an "export progress" option for transferring progress between the Steam and mobile versions.
• Gone Horribly Right: The board only has 16 spaces, so it's surprisingly easy to find a way to create tons of high-level tokens and consumables, only to end up with no space for Boring, but Practical attack tokens.
• Gray Is Useless: Exhausted Tokens turn gray to indicate that their effects have been disabled.
• Kill Sat: The City pack's level 9 Satellite automatically attacks at the end of each turn. It only does 5 damage, but all buffs on it become permanent, so it can quickly become ridiculous.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Each represented by a different Emoji: Chill (😎, removes all enemy abilities except the final boss'), Blushing (😳, the last enemy of each wave has an ability), Worried (😨, all enemies have abilities), Dazed (😵, the final enemy has more health), Annoyed (😤, stronger enemies start appearing earlier), Mad (😡, more powerful enemy types can spawn), Evil (😈, chooses one extra power that all enemies have), Existential (🌞, has Eternity as its final enemy).
• Our Genies Are Different: The Djinn is a potential final boss on higher difficulties. It gains different powers after each turn, and instantly kills the player on turn 3.
• Our Vampires Are Different: The Vampire has the traditional Bat transformation, represented by spawning a Bat token when destroyed. The Bat itself spawns a new Vampire when it is destroyed. The upgraded form spawns two bats.
• Piranha Problem: Piranhas are a weak enemy, but can attack at the end of your turn even if there are less than 4.
• Power-Up Food: Consumables are food and drink items that can be dragged onto any token to apply their beneficial effect. Combinables can be mixed with any Consumable to create a new Dish that has more powerful effects.
• Surplus Damage Bonus:
  • The Dice token grants an extra reroll if it overkills an enemy. By default, an un-upgraded Dice does 1 damage, so this is impossible without buffs.
  • The Bee enemy automatically attacks the player when killed unless overkilled.
• True Final Boss: Existential difficulty has Eternity as the final boss. It spawns enemies representing all previous difficulty levels, attacks you if you can't beat them in one turn, and is immune to all damage until you've defeated all of them.