Shaded Rooms

What is Shaded Rooms?

Shaded Rooms is a calm logic puzzle drawn like a floor plan. The grid is divided into rectangular rooms, and some rooms carry a number: exactly that many of their squares are shaded. Shaded squares never touch side by side, all the white squares stay joined in one piece, and no straight line of white squares may run through three rooms. Around the world the puzzle is also known as Heyawake.

Every board has exactly one answer, and it can always be reached by reasoning, never by guessing. Boards come in three sizes, 6 by 6, 8 by 8 and 10 by 10, and a new plan, the same for everyone, arrives every day.

How to play

Tap a square to shade it, tap again to mark it white with a dot, and once more to clear it. Drag across the grid to dot a whole run of squares in one move; a drag that starts on a dot clears the dots instead.

• Numbers. A number in a room tells how many of that room's squares are shaded. A room without a number can hold any amount, none included.
• Never side by side. Two shaded squares never share a side; touching at a corner is fine.
• One piece. All the white squares join up, side to side, into a single piece.
• Two rooms at most. A straight line of white squares, across or down, may reach from one room into the next, but never through a second wall into a third.
• Colours. A room that holds its number turns green, anything that breaks a rule turns red, and the line under the board says which rule.
• Score. Your score is the time to solve the board, plus 30 seconds for every hint. Undo is free, and every board size has its own leaderboard.

Strategy tips

1. Start with the zeros and the full rooms. A room marked 0 is white all over, and so is the rest of any room that already holds its number.
2. Dot around every shade. The squares beside a shaded square are always white, which often settles a whole small room.
3. Break the long white lines. Wherever a row or column passes right through a room, from one of its walls to the other, that stretch and the square just outside each wall need at least one shaded square between them. Once all but one of those squares are white, the last one is shaded.
4. Fit the number. A 1 by 3 room with 2 shades both ends, and a 3 by 3 room with 5 takes the corners and the middle. Look for rooms with just one way to hold their number.
5. Keep the white together. Never shade a square that would wall off part of the white; near the corners and edges that rules out many squares at once.

FAQ

Is Shaded Rooms free to play?

Yes. Like every game on Play, it runs free in your browser, with no download and no account needed.

Do I have to dot the white squares?

No. Dots are only notes for yourself; the board is solved the moment the squares you have shaded follow every rule.

What does a hint do?

It fixes a wrong mark first if there is one; otherwise it makes the next step that follows by logic, outlines the squares that step reads and says which rule it used. Each hint adds 30 seconds to your time.

What is today's plan?

Every day everyone plays the same medium 8 by 8 board, so times compare directly on the leaderboard.

How is my score counted?

Your score is the time from the first look at the board to the last square shaded, plus 30 seconds for every hint. Lower is better.