HubbardGamesPuzzle guides
Clear examples, useful techniques and practical guides for the daily puzzle league.
Four Colour · Solving guide
On a Four Colour board, a region that touches three different fixed colours has only one colour left. Colour it and the next region often corners itself the same way. An original five by five board where one such region settles four of the five open regions, checked by trying every possible colouring.
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HubbardGames is a website you can install to a phone, tablet or computer so it opens like an app. How to add it on iPhone, Android and desktop, what installing does and does not change, and what the New version available card on Today is asking you to do.
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Colour Fields · Solving guide
In Colour Fields, the moment a field reaches its number every square touching it has to take the other colour. An original five by five board where a 1, a 2, two 4s and a 7 each close in turn, checked by trying every possible colouring.
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Pairs · Solving guide
When a Pairs board stops giving you forced cells, look at the dominoes already placed. Each pair appears once, so every other place its digits touch is dead, and that can leave a cell with one partner. A worked example, checked against the game's solver.
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Tap a game's icon on the Board and you get a table for that game alone: today's field with results and hints, and an all-time table ranked on average points per day finished. Where it lives, what each column means, what it leaves out, and four invented Bridges days where the fastest player comes third.
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Traffic · Solving guide
Some Traffic boards can only be solved by sliding a car into the exit lane on purpose, then sliding it back where it started. Trace the chain of blockers back from the lane and you can see it coming. A worked 6x6 board, checked against every possible position.
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Sweep · Solving guide
Some Sweep squares touch no number at all, so no clue can ever decide them. The Mines left counter can. A worked five by five board, checked against the game's own solver and by exhaustive enumeration, shows how the mine total settles the last square.
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Patchwork · Solving guide
A printed Patchwork number that is walled in on every side but one has to grow through that one gap. How to spot the walls, why a different number counts as one, and an original five by five board where the rule fills seven cells one after another, checked against the game's own solver.
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Pearl Loop · Solving guide
When three white pearls sit side by side in a row or column, the loop cannot run along them. It has to cross all three. Here is why, worked on an original six by six board checked against the game's own solver, plus how often the pattern turns up.
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Number Neighbours · Solving guide
Most Number Neighbours players look at a cell and ask what it can hold. On the board below no cell answers that question at the start, but an empty five-cell block has only one place for its 5, then one for its 4, then one for its 3. Checked against the game's own solver and by brute force.
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The weekly and monthly Board views rank on total points, not on the average that decides All-time. Where to find them, what each column counts, when a week starts and ends, and an invented week where the weekly winner would come last on average.
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Math Mosaic · Solving guide
Every row and column of a five by five Math Mosaic board holds 1 to 5 once, so each one sums to 15. When addition cages fill most of a row, that total names the cell left over. A worked board, checked with the game's own solver and by exhaustive enumeration.
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Battleships · Solving guide
On an eight by eight Battleships board the longest ship has very few places it can go, and the row and column totals usually tell you which. Here is an original board where two totals of 4 look like homes for it and only one is, followed by the full solve, checked against the game's own solver.
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Profile has a head-to-head view that sets your league days against one other player's. Where it lives, which days it counts, how a day is won, and a worked week showing why days only one of you played disappear from it.
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Pipes · Solving guide
When a Pipes board stalls with every arm still able to meet another, check where the dead ends point. Two dead ends joined to each other make a network of their own, so neither can face the other. A four by four board worked from the first turn to the last.
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Rectangles · Solving guide
When every number on a Rectangles board still has two or more possible shapes, stop looking at the numbers and look at an empty square instead. If only one rectangle on the board can cover it, that rectangle is certain. A five by five board worked through from the first move to the last.
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HubbardGames sends no optional email unless you ask for it. Where the one switch lives, what these emails are, how the unsubscribe link works without signing in, and one worked example of when a come back and play nudge can reach you.
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Lattice · Solving guide
In Lattice a grey tile never means the letter is unused. It means neither word through that square wants it, which tells you exactly where it cannot go. How far each colour sends a letter, and a board finished in the minimum three swaps.
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Equation · Solving guide
Only three of the eight columns in Equation can hold the equals sign, and each one fixes how long the answer is. What columns 5, 6 and 7 each force, and a board taken from a gold equals sign to the answer in three guesses.
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Every dateless board in the Library keeps a table of everyone who has finished it, whenever they played. Where it appears, which results take a place, why a hint can tie you with a slower player, and one Five Letters board worked through.
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Trail · Solving guide
Before every move on a Trail board, look at the squares you are leaving behind. If the move splits them into two groups, or leaves one square with a single way in, it is wrong. A six by six board worked through, and why the move towards the next number is so often the bad one.
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Aquarium · Solving guide
In Aquarium, every tank that crosses a row fills that row completely or not at all. So a row clue is a sum of whole widths, and some totals can only be made one way. Work a full six by six board that opens with no zeros and no full lines.
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Storm · Solving guide
A Storm row with a bolt at each end and nothing in between looks empty of clues. It already fixes two cells: the second and fifth are clouds. Here is why, the near miss that fixes one cell, and a checked six by six board where it starts row 2.
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Colour Code · Solving guide
A Colour Code row with no pegs at all feels like a wasted guess. It is one of the better answers you can get. Here is what a blank rules out, how many codes it leaves, and how to turn the dead colours into a tool.
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