Scampers

Hard Scampers mazes

Hard mazes are 8×8, with a way out of about twenty-five moves. The obvious route never works: you'll have to lead the cat somewhere else first, and most of them need a well-timed wait.

Practice gives you mazes you haven't solved yet, as many as you like, and keeps your best time without hints. Every maze is made and checked by a computer, and its par is the fewest moves that get the mouse out.

How to play Scampers

1. The mouse has to get out of the maze through the gap in its outer wall, into the mouse hole.
2. On each turn, the mouse steps up, down, left or right into an open cell, or waits where it is.
3. Then the cat takes two steps toward the mouse. For each one, it steps across toward the mouse if that brings it closer and no wall is in the way. If not, it tries up or down. If neither works, it stays put.
4. Walls stop the cat just as they stop the mouse, so it can get stuck behind one.
5. If the cat lands on the mouse, it pounces, and that move is taken back. Get out to win.

Swipe on the maze, tap a cell next to the mouse, or use the arrow keys (or W A S D) to step, and press Wait or Space to wait. Undo has no limit, and Ctrl+Z takes a move back. Every maze has a way out.

Each puzzle has a par: the fewest moves that get the mouse out, worked out by a computer. Your time is what counts on the leaderboard, but matching par is a challenge of its own.

Solving tips

• Think like the cat. It always tries across first. Before each move, work out where its two steps will take it.
• Lure it behind a wall. The cat only ever steps closer, so if you stand on the far side of a wall from it, it gets stuck there. That's when you run.
• Waiting is a move. Sometimes the best thing to do is let the cat walk into a trap.
• Stuck? A hint shows a good next move, and when there's no way out anymore, it tells you how many moves to take back.