Sticks

Medium Sticks puzzles

Medium puzzles have a handful of ways to do it, so the lines to move take some looking for. Count lines and squares before you move anything: every side two squares share saves a line.

Practice gives you puzzles you haven't solved yet, as many as you like, and keeps your best time without hints. Every puzzle is made and checked by a computer: the number of lines it asks you to move is always the fewest that can do it.

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.