Tapa Puzzle
Shade cells into one connected wall around the clues. Pick Shade or Dot, then mark cells so the shaded wall is one piece, has no solid 2×2, and matches every clue.
Tap a cell, or drag across cells, to place the mark. Tap a mark again to clear it. Clue cells stay empty. Press M to switch Shade and Dot. With a mouse, right-click places a dot.
How to play Tapa
Choose Shade or Dot
Shade is the wall. A dot is a cell you already know is white. Tap a cell, or drag across cells, to place the mark. Tap a cell that already has that mark to clear it. A cell with the other mark takes the new one. Clue cells stay empty.
Read the numbers
A number lists the lengths of the shaded groups in the ring around that cell. The ring is the eight cells around it, or fewer on the edge. Groups are separated by white cells, and the numbers are written smallest first. A 0 means every neighbour is white. The clue cell itself stays white.
Join the wall
Every shaded cell has to touch the rest of the wall by a side. No four shaded cells may form a solid 2×2. The puzzle is finished when the shaded cells are that one wall, even if some white cells still have no dot.
Tapa is a shading puzzle. You shade cells into one wall that runs around the clues. The wall has to stay in one piece, side to side, and it must not contain a solid 2×2 of shaded cells. You can play grids from 6×6 up to 10×10, and every puzzle here has exactly one shaded wall that you can reach by logic, with no guessing.
Rules
The board is an n×n grid. Some cells hold a clue. A clue is a list of numbers, or a single 0. An empty cell is not a clue. The clue cell itself is never shaded.
The ring around a clue is the cells that touch it, including the diagonals. In the middle of the board that ring has eight cells. On an edge it has fewer.
Shade a cell to make it part of the wall, or leave it white. A dot is a mark for a cell you already know is white. Dots are optional. The puzzle does not ask you to dot every white cell.
Each number in a clue is the length of one group of shaded cells in that ring. A group is consecutive shaded cells along the ring. White cells separate the groups. The numbers are written from smallest to largest, so the order around the ring does not matter. A clue of 0 means every cell in the ring is white. A clue of 4 means one group of four shaded neighbours. A clue of 1 2 means one shaded neighbour on its own and a separate group of two.
No four shaded cells may form a solid 2×2 anywhere on the board. Every shaded cell must share a side with the rest of the wall. Touching only at a corner does not join the wall.
The puzzle is solved when the shaded cells are that one wall and they match the clues. White cells may still be blank. You do not have to place a dot on every white cell.
Controls
Choose Shade or Dot under the board. Tap a cell, or drag across cells, to place that mark. Tap a cell that already has the mark to clear it. A cell that has the other mark takes the new one. A drag follows the first playable cell: it places the mark, or it clears when that cell already has it. Clue cells are not markable. With a mouse, right-click places a dot, or clears a dot that is already there.
On a keyboard, the arrow keys move around the grid. Space or Enter places the selected mark, or clears it when the cell already has that mark. S or 1 shades the cell. X, D, E, or 2 places a dot. M switches Shade and Dot. Backspace, Delete, or 0 clears the cell.
A clue turns teal when every neighbour is already marked and those marks match the numbers. A clue of 0 stays plain while any neighbour is still blank, so an untouched board does not look finished. A clue turns red when the cell itself is shaded, or when no remaining pattern fits the numbers. Press Hint for one step the rules already force, with a sentence saying why. Press Check when you want the board checked against the rules. Undo and Redo step through your moves, and Reset clears the board. When the shaded cells are the unique wall, the board turns teal.
Techniques
Easy grids follow from one clue at a time, plus the 2×2 rule:
- Zero: a 0 leaves every neighbour white.
- Saturated: a number that uses every neighbour shades those cells.
- Ring agree: every pattern still left for this clue agrees on these cells.
- Avoid 2×2: three shaded cells would close a 2×2, so the fourth stays white.
Medium grids also look at clues that share cells, and keep the marks those clues agree on.
Hard grids look at the wall as a whole:
- Unreachable: a cell that cannot reach the wall stays white.
- Sealed: the wall is already closed, so the remaining cells stay white.
- Bridge: this is the only cell that joins the wall.
- One careful try: the other mark breaks the clues, so this mark stays.
Beginner tips
Start with the 0 clues. They clear the whole ring, and those white cells often split a neighbouring clue into groups you can count.
When a clue already uses every neighbour, shade that ring before you look for a longer wall. Then check that you have not closed a 2×2.
If you are new to Tapa, start with the daily 8×8 easy grid, or a 6×6 easy grid, and move up once zero clues and the 2×2 rule feel natural.