Pipes

About this game

Pipes is the rotate-to-connect puzzle, sometimes called Netwalk or a loop puzzle. A grid of pipe segments sits scrambled, one glowing source among them, and every tap turns a segment a quarter turn clockwise. Line them all up so that every pipe joins its neighbours and the light spreads from the source to the last dead end, with nothing left pointing at a wall. It is a single-tap game with nothing to drag, aim or time, which makes it about as direct as a puzzle gets on a phone — but the boards are not shallow. What makes this version different is the number in the corner marked Fewest. Every board is generated as a tree of pipes and then scrambled, and before it is dealt the game proves that exactly one arrangement of the segments connects the whole network. That matters, because with a single answer the minimum number of taps is not an estimate: each pipe has to reach exactly one orientation, each tap turns one pipe one step, so the sum of those distances is the true minimum and nothing can beat it. Solve a board in that many taps and it is a perfect circuit. The generator branches deliberately, so boards read as networks rather than one long winding corridor — expect junctions, crosses and plenty of dead ends to place. Grids run from four squares across up to eight, and a fresh six-by-six circuit arrives every day for everyone, with a streak, a best-tap record and a spoiler-free share. There is no timer pressure and nothing to lose: a wrong turn costs a tap and nothing else, so the whole game is the quiet arithmetic of getting there in as few as possible.

Controls

Tap or click a pipe to turn it a quarter turn clockwise. That is the whole control scheme — there is nothing to drag, aim or time.

• New deals a fresh board; Daily switches to today's shared circuit.
• Turning a pipe that looks the same in every direction does nothing and is not counted.

How to play

Every pipe turns clockwise when you tap it. Line them all up so the light reaches every last segment.

Finishing a board

• Light spreads from the violet source, and two pipes only carry it between them when both are open on the edge they share.
• The board is finished when every pipe is lit and none is left pointing at a wall.
• Lit pipes glow, unlit pipes stay grey, so you can always see how far the network has got.

Fewest

• Every board has exactly one solution, checked before you see it, so the Fewest number really is the smallest number of taps that can finish it.
• Match it and you have solved a perfect circuit. Going over costs nothing but the count.

Read the full Pipes rules and strategy →