Heyawake

About Heyawake

A Japanese logic puzzle where you shade cells black inside numbered rooms. The number in a room tells exactly how many cells in that room must be black. Black cells cannot touch each other, all white cells must stay connected, and no straight line of three white cells can cross a room boundary.

Description provided by GameZipper.

How to play

1. Each room may contain a small number in one of its cells. That number tells exactly how many cells inside the room must be shaded black. Rooms without a number can hold any count.
2. Click a cell to toggle it between white and black. After shading, every numbered room must contain exactly the count shown by its clue.
3. No two black cells may share an edge. Diagonal touches are fine. If two shaded cells sit next to each other, that is an error.
4. Every white cell must be reachable from every other white cell by stepping only through white cells orthogonally. White must form one connected region.
5. No straight line of three or more consecutive white cells may cross from one room into another. Three whites in a row must stay entirely inside a single room.
6. The puzzle is solved when every numbered room has its exact count, no two black cells touch, all white is connected, and no white run of 3+ crosses a boundary.

Controls

This game supports touch, keyboard, mouse input; the exact controls are explained inside the game.

Questions

What is Heyawake?

Heyawake (Dividing the Rooms) is a Japanese logic puzzle published by Nikoli. The grid is divided into rectangular rooms. Some rooms contain a number that tells exactly how many cells in that room must be shaded black. The goal is to satisfy all numbered rooms while obeying the global rules.

How do the Heyawake rules work?

1) A number in a room shows how many cells in that room must be black. 2) Black cells cannot be orthogonally adjacent. 3) All white cells must form one connected region. 4) No straight line of three or more consecutive white cells may cross a room boundary.

Is Heyawake hard to learn?

Heyawake is friendly to beginners because the rules are short and visual. The hardest part is the white-connectivity and the room-boundary rule. Start with 8x8 grids and work up to 12x12.