Introduction
This tutorial will teach you all you need to know to start playing Picross. You will learn what Picross is, and you will get a hands-on experience with interactive Picross grids as you learn some of the basic techniques for solving Picross puzzles. You can also follow along with an example Picross solution to see how the techniques work together.
1. What is Picross?
1 |
|||||||||||
1 |
2 |
6 |
9 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
||
2 |
|||||||||||
1 |
1 |
||||||||||
4 |
|||||||||||
2 |
1 |
||||||||||
3 |
1 |
||||||||||
8 |
|||||||||||
8 |
|||||||||||
7 |
|||||||||||
5 |
|||||||||||
3 |
Picross is a type of puzzle where you use logic techniques to draw a picture in a grid.
Picross puzzles look like grids of squares with numbers at the top and to the left.
The numbers tell you how many black squares to draw in a row or column. Each number represents a group of black squares. There must be at least one white square between groups.
You can use logic to figure out where to draw black squares in the grid.
When you are done, the grid will contain a picture.
2. Empty Rows and Full Rows
0 |
If the number for a row or column is zero, like in the example above, that means it doesn't have any filled-in squares. All the squares in that row or column should be white.
When you are doing a Picross puzzle with a row or column that says zero, you should mark the squares in some way so you will know not to fill them in. It will help keep you from making mistakes later on as you work on solving the puzzle.
In the grid above, click each square twice to turn it grey. The grey color is for squares that you know should not be black.
5 |
If the number for a row or column is the same as the width or height of the grid, respectively, like in the example above, that means that all of the squares in that row or column should be black.
Click each of the squares in the grid above to turn each one black.
3. Only One Way To Fill In
1 |
4 |
3 |
It might not be obvious right away, but there is only one way to fill in this row.
If you add up all of the numbers, plus a 1 for a white square between each, you get 10 (1 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 3 = 10). Ten is the total number of squares in this row, so it can only be filled in one way:
1 |
4 |
3 |
4. The Overlap Technique
One of the most important and basic Picross techniques is the overlap technique. In the row above, the number is 7. There are several ways that you can fill in seven squares in a row that is 10 squares long. But you might notice that there are some squares that will be filled in no matter what.
When you put the 7 squares at the far left, and then the far right, the
4 middle squares are filled in both times. This means that those four middle squares will be filled in no matter what. You don't know where the other three squares will be filled in, but in a real Picross puzzle, it should become clear as you solve it. If you can't visualize where the overlapping squares will be, you can mark the area of overlap with grey squares, like
this: The overlap technique is not limited to rows or columns that have a single group of black squares. In some cases, you can use the overlap technique when there is more than one group of black squares, like in this example. You can put the groups of squares at each end of the grid. However, you should only fill in the one square that overlaps
from the group of 4. If two different groups overlap, the way that the 2 overlaps the 4 in this example, don't fill it in! It will not necessarily be filled in, because it's not part of the same group. 5. On The Edge If you have filled out some black squares and there is a square at the end of a row or column, you can safely assume that the black square is part of the last (or first) number for that row or column (depending on whether the black square is at the beginning or end of the row or of the column). When you solve a row or column (in other words, when you know where all the black squares are in that row or column), you should make the remaining white squares grey so you won't get confused later on while you try to complete the puzzle. Click each white square twice to make them grey. 6. Cross It Out In this row, you can't tell where the other two black squares will go to complete the group of four. However, you can see that the group of four squares will not reach some of the squares at the ends of the row. It is always a good idea to mark the unreachable squares. Not only will it help keep you from making mistakes later on in a puzzle, but marking white squares can also be essential to solving the puzzle. Always mark white squares! When you cross out squares this way, be sure not to cross out squares
that could still be filled in. Here is another example: In this example, there is already a grey square in the row. There are only two squares to the left of the grey square, and you can't fit the group of five there. This means you should mark the two squares to the left of the grey square, because there is no way that they will be filled in. Now that you have marked the white squares, the remaining area of this row is small enough to do the overlap technique.