Sticks

A new Sticks puzzle every day

Everyone gets the same Sticks puzzle each day, and a new one arrives at midnight your time. Monday and Tuesday are easy, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday are medium, and Friday and Saturday are the hardest of the week.

Each one says how many lines to move and how many squares to make. It never asks for more moves than it takes.

Solve it on consecutive days to build a streak, then share your time. A shared result shows your time and how many hints you used, never the answer. Some puzzles have more than one answer, and any that keeps to the rules counts.

How to play Sticks

1. The board is a grid of dots, and lines join some of them, the way matchsticks make a figure.
2. Each puzzle says how many lines to move and how many squares to end with.
3. A square counts when all four of its sides are there and no line is inside it. Squares come in any size: the eight lines around a 2×2 space make one square, as long as nothing crosses it.
4. When you finish, every line has to be a side of a square: no line left over.
5. Move exactly as many lines as the puzzle says: it's always the fewest that can do it.

Tap a line to pick it up, then tap where it goes, or drag it there. A dashed outline marks where a line started: tap it to send that line home. Moving the same line twice counts once, and putting it back counts as no move. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move between spots, Enter or Space to pick up and put down, and Ctrl+Z to undo.

Solving tips

• Count the lines. Squares that don't share a side need four lines each, so 12 lines make 3 squares only if no two of them touch along a side. Every shared side saves a line.
• Think bigger. A big square with nothing inside it counts as one square. When the numbers don't add up with small squares, try a bigger one.
• Look for corners. Two lines at the outside corner of a figure often come away without leaving anything loose, and a gap with three sides already drawn takes a single line to close.
• Stuck? The first hint tells you something about how the answer is built. After that, each hint shows a line to move and where it goes.