Number Path

About Number Path

Number Path is a quiet logic puzzle built from counting. A few numbers are already on the grid, always including 1 and the last number, and you fill in the rest so that 1 touches 2, 2 touches 3 and so on to the end. Touching means sharing a side or just a corner, so a number can have up to eight neighbours. The numbers wind through every open square exactly once, around any blocked squares. Gaps between the given numbers are the clues: if 12 and 15 are three steps apart, 13 and 14 have very few places to go. Every daily grid has exactly one solution, found by plain reasoning before it is published, so you never need to guess.

How to play Number Path

1. Fill every open square with a number from 1 up to the number of open squares, each number once. Shaded squares are blocked and stay empty.
2. Each number must touch the next one, sideways or diagonally, so 1, 2, 3 and onwards trace one unbroken path through every open square.
3. Some numbers are given, always 1 and the last one; they can’t be changed. Select a square and type or tap a number, or turn on Next number to place the next missing number with one tap.
4. Easy grids are 5 × 5, medium 7 × 7 and hard 8 × 8. Every grid has exactly one solution, found by logic alone. Fastest time wins; fewer entries break ties.

Tips & strategy

• Look for short gaps first. Two given numbers one apart with a single square between them fix the missing number at once.
• Count the distance. Numbers k apart can be at most k squares apart in any direction, which rules out whole corners of the grid.
• Watch the corners and edges. A square with only one or two free neighbours must sit at the end of a run, or right between two placed numbers.
• Turn on the highlight for the next number to see every square it can still take, and use notes when two places remain.

Number Path: questions and answers