netwalk

Learn Netwalk by Solving a Small Board

Updated . Start with three hands-on lessons, then transfer the same checks to the full game.

Rotate a tile so its pipe openings meet the openings on neighboring tiles. Every tile must connect to the orange server. These lessons use Bounded rules: pipes cannot leave the outer edge, and the completed network has no loops. A cyan tile reaches the server right now; it may still need rotating later.

Lesson 1: eliminate directions that leave the board

Consider an elbow in the top-right corner. It has two neighboring cells: one to the left and one below. Its two openings must therefore point left and down. An opening facing up or right would run into the outside boundary. This gives a forced orientation without guessing anything about the rest of the network.

Do not generalize this to every corner piece. An endpoint has just one opening and can point inward in two different ways; the corner alone does not decide which. In Torus mode the opposite edges are neighbors, so the boundary deduction does not apply at all.

Lesson 2: match the opening on the other side

In the second lesson the center is a straight pipe. Both fixed neighbors point toward it from the left and right, so it needs to be horizontal. A north-facing opening in the center cannot connect to an east-facing opening in the tile above: neighboring openings must face each other across the same shared border.

The server is not automatically a fixed clue. You can rotate it in the main game unless Classic has explicitly locked that tile. That is why blindly rotating every neighbor to match the server's starting direction can lead you away from the solution.

Lesson 3: check the entire network

The last lesson removes the fixed clues. Start with the two corner elbows and the horizontal straights on the top and bottom edges. Follow the connections they force toward the middle. If an endpoint appears to fit in two places, postpone it until a neighboring piece settles the choice.

Use both feedback counts. Nine cyan tiles are not enough if an extra opening still faces a wall or a closed side. Likewise, a tidy group of matching pipes is not finished if it remains disconnected from the server. The practice board finishes only when both counts are satisfied.

What to try on a fresh board

  1. Choose Bounded and a small grid on the game page.
  2. Check corners and edges for forced orientations, without assuming every boundary tile is forced.
  3. Use confirmed openings to constrain their neighbors.
  4. When testing an uncertain move, remember the assumption and use Undo if it creates a contradiction.

Classic permits loops and contains fixed clues. Torus wraps both axes. Neither mode guarantees that the first visible connection is correct. These lessons teach local deductions; this site's random generator does not certify a unique solution or a deduction-only route through every board.

Try a random Netwalk board or continue with the longer constraint-solving walkthrough. The tutorial has no timer and stores no progress or scores.