Netwalk Modes Explained: Bounded, Torus, Classic and Daily
The same pipe shape can imply different moves in different Netwalk modes. A corner elbow is forced inward on a board with walls, but the same position has four neighbors when edges wrap. Before following any strategy, read the mode selector. This page documents the implementation on playnetwalk.com, rather than assuming that every game called Netwalk has identical rules.
The common goal
In all three modes, rotate tiles so that every node connects to the orange server through matching pipe openings. If one tile opens east, its eastern neighbor must open west. The board is not complete while a pipe has an unmatched end, even if all tiles appear connected. Cyan indicates the current server-connected component; it is feedback about reachability, not a certificate for every rotation.
Tile shapes stay fixed when you rotate them. An endpoint has one arm, a straight has two opposite arms, an elbow two adjacent arms, a T three arms, and a cross four. A straight has only two distinct orientations even though it can be clicked four times. A cross looks the same after a quarter turn. Recognizing that symmetry saves unnecessary rotations without changing the rules.
Bounded: begin with the walls
Bounded uses the ordinary rectangular neighbor grid. There is no neighbor outside the top, bottom, left or right boundary. The server is placed at the central row and column, using the lower-right member of the central four cells when both dimensions are even. The generated network is a tree, and a completed board must have no cycles.
A top-edge T must leave its north side closed. An upper-left elbow must point east and south. A corner endpoint, however, has two inward options until its neighbors rule one out. These distinctions make Bounded a useful first mode: the outside boundary gives reliable deductions, while interior pieces still require reciprocal checking. No tiles are supplied as locked clues in this mode.
Torus: the screen edge is a seam
Torus connects the first and last columns in each row and the first and last rows in each column. Its server remains central, and the no-cycle completion rule remains. A pipe leaving the top row must meet a downward opening in the bottom row of the same column. This is an ordinary graph connection despite the visual gap across the screen.
Try tracing a seam before solving the center. Pick one top-row arm and inspect the bottom cell it meets. If that bottom cell has a confirmed closed side, remove the top orientation from consideration. Do not rotate all edge pieces inward: that would discard valid candidates. A loop can also cross a seam, so a locally open-looking path may already close globally.
Classic: loops and given clues
Classic keeps outside walls but may add reciprocal edges to the starting tree. Loops are permitted in a completed network. The server is randomly placed, and some tiles can be locked in their solved orientations. A locked tile is a given clue supplied by the generator; this site does not let you lock arbitrary pieces as notes.
The generation code chooses each lock probabilistically and includes a fallback for a sufficiently large board without any selected lock. It does not promise an exact fraction of locked cells. An unlocked tile beside a clue must match every arm facing it, but a closed side is also binding. Use these facts as anchors while still checking all tiles connect to the server. Do not break a valid Classic loop just because a Bounded strategy told you to avoid cycles.
Daily is a reproducible setup, not a fourth topology
The Daily Challenge starts a 7 by 7 Bounded board from a UTC date seed. Two players using that date and the same generator version should get the same starting setup. This is a qualified reproducibility claim: if the algorithm changes, the same date can produce a different board. Local calendar dates near midnight can also differ from the UTC date.
Restarting Daily restarts its challenge. Starting an ordinary new game produces another random board. There is no server-verified leaderboard here; the browser can store personal best move counts locally. Compare the date, dimensions, mode and version before treating two scores as attempts at the same challenge. The seed guide explains the limits in more detail.
Size, controls and choosing a session
Ordinary games accept row and column counts from 3 to 25, including rectangles. Preset buttons are conveniences, not independently calibrated difficulty levels. More cells mean more borders to inspect, but ambiguity depends on the actual shapes and arrangement. For a brief introduction, use a small Bounded board. For practice with global relationships, try Torus. To work outward from immutable clues while allowing loops, choose Classic.
Use a pointer or touch to rotate the main canvas tiles, the Undo control or Z to reverse moves, and the new-game control or R when you intend to replace or restart the board. The canvas does not currently provide full per-tile keyboard navigation. The button-based tutorial does support keyboard rotation through Tab and Enter or Space. Choose the interface that suits the action you want to practice.
These modes are network-rotation puzzles: you rotate a supplied set of pieces instead of drawing new pipes freely. If you want to compare that task with drawing separate color paths, read the Connection Puzzles Compared: Net, KNetWalk, Flow Free and Netwalk. If you want a solving routine for the mode you have chosen, use the Netwalk Strategy: Forced Moves, Matching Pipes and Safe Undo.