How to play Tents

The goal

The rules

• Every tree gets its own tent in a square sharing a side with it (not a corner). Each tent belongs to exactly one tree.
• Tents never touch each other, not even at a corner.
• Each row and column holds exactly the number of tents shown beside it.

Playing

• Tap a square to mark it as grass, meaning “no tent here”. Tap again for a tent, and once more to clear it.
• Hold a square to place or remove a tent straight away.
• Drag across squares to grass them all in one go. Starting a drag on grass wipes grass instead.
• Once a row or column has all its tents, its number turns green. Tap the number to fill the rest of that line with grass.

Checking your work

• A number turns red when its line has too many tents, or too few empty squares left to fit them.
• Tents that touch, or have no tree beside them, turn red. So does a tree with no tent and no room left for one.
• Undo takes back your last change, and a drag counts as one change. The bin button clears the board.
• The puzzle is solved as soon as the tents are right. You don’t need to fill in the grass.

Tips

• Start with zeros: grass every square in a row or column whose number is 0.
• Squares not beside any tree can never hold a tent, so grass them early.
• A tree with only one free side must have its tent there. Then grass the eight squares around that tent.

Difficulty

• Easy: a 6×6 grid. Normal: 8×8. Hard: 10×10.
• Every puzzle is new and has exactly one solution. Your best times are kept for each difficulty.

Keyboard

• Arrow keys move, Space or Enter taps, T places a tent, G or X places grass, Backspace clears, F grasses the finished row and column, and Ctrl or ⌘+Z undoes.

Questions

Strategy guides