shay.quest · one

Seven for
a Secret

You're going to fill in squares until a picture appears. The numbers around the edge tell you which ones.

Each row and each column has a list of numbers beside it. Those are the lengths of the unbroken runs of filled squares in that line, in the order they appear, with at least one empty square between one run and the next. A row marked 3 in a five-wide grid has three filled squares together somewhere and two empty ones. A row marked 2 1 has two filled, then a gap, then one filled.

That's the entire rule. Three things get you through everything else:

• Free lines. If a clue equals the length of the line, the whole line is filled. Hunt for those first — they cost no thinking at all.
• Crossing off. Once a line's runs are all accounted for, every remaining square in it is definitely empty. Mark those with an × . The ×s are what squeeze the other runs into place, so use them constantly.
• Overlap. When nothing is free, take a run longer than half its line. Push it as far one way as it will go, then as far the other. Any square covered both times must be filled — even though you still don't know where the run begins.

Tap a square to fill it. Tap again for an × . Again to clear it.