How to play Wayfold
Wayfold is a daily number path puzzle, the kind often called a zip puzzle. You draw one line through every tile of a small grid and pass the numbers in order. A puzzle takes a few minutes, and every one has exactly one answer you can reach by logic.
The rules
- Draw one path through every tile. It starts at the 1 and visits each tile exactly once.
- Step to a tile beside the one you are on: up, down, left or right, never diagonally.
- Pass the numbers in order. The path reaches the 1, then the 2, then the 3, and ends on the highest number.
- Walls block the way. A thick line between two tiles means the path can't step straight from one to the other.
The path never visits a tile twice, so it can't cross itself or loop back over ground it has covered.
Controls
- Drag from the end of the path to draw. You can also tap the tile next to the end to add it.
- Drag back over the path to take tiles off. Tap a tile on the path to cut the path right there.
- Undo steps back one move. Clear starts again from the 1.
- On a keyboard, the arrow keys draw from the end of the path and Backspace takes the last tile off.
- Hint highlights the next step you can prove and explains why.
- The next number to reach wears a gold ring. If the path reaches the last number too early, the tiles it missed get a red hatch.
Five techniques that solve every board
Every Wayfold puzzle can be finished with the moves below. Easy puzzles need only the first four. Medium puzzles ask you to look a few moves ahead, and hard puzzles need a longer look.
1. Narrow tiles
Every tile on the way needs two open sides: one to come in, one to go out. A corner tile has only two sides, so the path uses both. The same goes for a tile hemmed in by walls or by path you have already drawn. And when the path reaches a tile with only one way on, that is where it goes next.
2. The start and the finish
The 1 and the highest number are the two ends of the path, so each needs only one open side. When only one side is open, the path goes through it. The two ends must also not meet too soon: a link that would join them while tiles are still unvisited is ruled out.
3. No loops
The pieces of path you have worked out may sit apart on the board. Joining the two ends of the same piece would close a loop, and a loop is never part of one path through the grid. So that link is ruled out, which often leaves a narrow tile behind.
4. Numbers in order
Between the 3 and the 4 there is no other number. So a piece of path that runs into the 3 can't join a piece that holds the 5: it would skip the 4. Rule out every link that would take the numbers out of order. Close to a number this often leaves a single way to go.
5. Look a few moves ahead
When nothing is forced, pick a tile with two choices and imagine one of them. Follow the forced moves from there. If a tile soon has no way through, part of the grid gets cut off, or the numbers come out of order, the choice was wrong and the other one is right. On medium boards a few moves are enough; hard boards ask you to follow it further.
A handy check: picture the grid as a chessboard. Every step changes color, so two numbers on the same color are an even number of steps apart, and two on different colors an odd number.
Questions
When does a new puzzle come out?
At midnight in your own time zone. The board grows through the week, from 5×5 on Monday to a hard 7×7 at the weekend.
Do I need an account?
No. Your streak, times and progress are saved in this browser. Clearing browser data removes them.
Does using a hint break my streak?
No. Your result just shows how many hints you used.
Is Wayfold the same as Zip?
The idea is the same as LinkedIn's Zip and the classic numbered path puzzles such as Hidato. Wayfold has its own boards made by our own generator, a new puzzle every day, 300 practice puzzles and step-by-step hints.
Can a puzzle need a guess?
No. Before a puzzle is published, a solver works through it with the five techniques above, step by step, and checks that only one path fits. If it ever has to guess, the puzzle is thrown away.