Our heyawake puzzles are made by our own engine. The generator cuts the grid into rectangular rooms, shades a random valid pattern, numbers the rooms, and removes numbers while the solver still finds exactly one answer; where two answers are possible it splits a room and tries again. Our tests check the solver against a brute-force count of every possible shading on hundreds of small grids.
Rules
- Shade some squares. Shaded squares never share a side.
- All unshaded squares form one connected area, linked side by side.
- A room with a number contains exactly that many shaded squares. Rooms without a number can have any count.
- No straight line of unshaded squares, across or down, may pass through three rooms. In other words, it may cross at most one room wall.
Tap a square to shade it, again to put a dot (unshaded), and once more to clear it. Two touching shaded squares, a room with too many, or a dotted line through three rooms turn red.
Levels
Easy grids are 6 by 6, medium 8 by 8 and hard 10 by 10, all with exactly one answer. Hard grids come from a bank we generated and checked in advance, because each one takes several seconds to make.
Strategy
- Neighbors of shaded squares are always unshaded; dot them right away.
- Small rooms: a 2 in a room of two squares cannot work (they would touch), so look at how numbers fit a room's shape. A 2 in a 1 by 3 room shades both ends.
- Long white runs: when a line of dots is about to cross a second wall, the next square in the line must be shaded.
- Never cut the white area: a square whose shading would wall off part of the grid stays unshaded.
- Corners: the two squares beside a corner square cannot both be shaded, or the corner would be cut off.
Hints and statistics
Hint gives the next step the engine can explain, from room counts to the three-room line rule and connectivity, or a trial step when nothing simpler is left. Check and Show mistakes compare your shading with the answer; times and the daily streak are stored per level. For more shading logic, try nurikabe, light up or star battle.
Solver tested . Found a problem? Tell us.
Questions
What does the three-room rule mean exactly?
Follow any row or column. A run of unshaded squares may enter a second room but not a third, so it can cross at most one room wall before a shaded square stops it.
Can shaded squares touch at a corner?
Yes, as long as they do not share a side and the unshaded squares stay connected.
Do rooms without a number matter?
They follow every other rule, they just do not fix how many shaded squares they hold.
Is the daily heyawake the same for everyone?
Yes. It is chosen from the date by our generator or bank, one per level, and changes at midnight on your device.