Path Puzzles

How it works

In a path puzzle you draw a single line through a grid. The line moves from square to square, up, down, left or right, never diagonally, and it never crosses itself. Most versions ask you to pass through every square on the board and to visit numbered points in order, from 1 to the highest number. A good puzzle has exactly one route that does all of that.

It sounds like a maze, but it plays more like a logic puzzle. Covering every square is the hard part, because a line that cuts the board in two leaves squares it can never reach. Some puzzles add walls between squares, or special squares where the line must go straight or must turn.

What makes a good one

• One solution, reachable by logic, with no trial and error needed.
• Drawing that feels smooth under a finger, with easy undo.
• New rules introduced one at a time, so the ideas build.
• Boards that stay readable on a phone screen.
• A daily puzzle that everyone plays, gentle early in the week and harder later.

Strategies that help

Find the forced squares. A corner, or any square with only two open sides, can only be crossed one way. Draw those first.

Never leave a pocket. If your line would wall off a group of squares from the rest, it is wrong.

Think about the order. The next number might be close, but the right route there is often the long way round.

Use the edges. A line that hugs the edge of the board early keeps the middle open.

Our take

Our path puzzle is Choo Thru. You lay one railway line through every tile of a little countryside, calling at the stations in order, with hedges, tunnels and turntables along the way, and a toy train rides your line when you finish. There are 300 levels in 12 Lines and a Daily Line for everyone. For another kind of grid puzzle, see arrow puzzles.