TappyPotato logic puzzles

TappyPotato

82 logic-puzzle types, rules and where to play

The answer is not the point.Thinking is.

A humble potato, curious to the last tap.

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The full atlas

82 logic-puzzle types with their full rules, how to make the first move, where players get stuck — and which of 179 active sites actually host it.

Pencil logic

20
Slitherlink Every dot ends up on one closed, non-crossing loop. The number in a cell only says how many of its four sides the loop uses. 1989 · 5×5 – 25×25 · 12 sites Nurikabe Digits are islands, everything else is sea. You decide which cells sink, while keeping the sea one connected body and the islands apart. 1991 · 7×7 – 25×25 · 10 sites Nonogram Every row and column carries a short list of numbers telling you which runs of cells to fill. Finish, and a pixel picture appears — logic that paints as you solve. 1987 · 5×5 – 30×30 · 17 sites Akari Place bulbs on white cells until every cell is lit. Numbered black cells are walls; the digit says how many bulbs touch them. 2001 · 7×7 – 25×25 · 9 sites Masyu One closed loop must pass through every black and white pearl. White means go straight through; black means turn here. Two rules, and the difficulty still goes to eleven. 2000 · 6×6 – 20×20 · 10 sites Hashiwokakero The number on an island is how many bridges leave it. Bridges run only horizontally or vertically, never cross, and every island must end up reachable. 1990 · 7×7 – 25×25 · 9 sites Yajilin Arrows tell you how many black cells lie in that direction, yet the clue cell itself can never be black. It stitches a Slitherlink loop onto a Nonogram grid. 1998 · 8×8 – 23×23 · 9 sites Gokigen Naname Each dot states how many slash ends touch it. Slashes may never form a closed loop — one rule, and it bites hard. 1992 · 6×6 – 15×15 · 9 sites Kuromasu A digit tells you how many white cells you can see from it, itself included. Where the view stops, a black cell sits. 1993 · 6×6 – 15×15 · 9 sites Kurodoko Same family as Kuromasu, but the digit counts every white cell visible along the row and column — the sightline runs further, so it bites harder. 1993 · 6×6 – 15×15 · 10 sites Heyawake Thick lines cut the grid into rooms, and numbered rooms need a set number of black cells. Three bans stacked together make this one of the hardest Japanese types. 1992 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 10 sites Norinori Shade the grid into domino-shaped blocks of two. No two blocks may touch by an edge. One sentence of rules, and a strangely addictive rhythm. 1999 · 8×8 – 16×16 · 11 sites Yin-Yang Only two colors, both must be connected, and no 2×2 block of one color. Minimal rules, and a showcase of pure constraint reasoning. 1998 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 10 sites Tapa A clue says which runs among its eight neighbours are black. The most widely travelled of the Turkish-origin types — Nonogram-like, but with a loop-ish feel. 2007 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 10 sites LITS Carve one L, I, T or S tetromino out of every room. Four shapes, one per room — the most elegant of the region-division family. 2004 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 11 sites Shingoki White dots are passed straight through, black dots force a turn. Nearly the same rule as Masyu, except the network may have loose ends — and that changes everything. 2005 · 7×7 – 18×18 · 10 sites Kakurasu Weights sit along the edges, and the black cells in a row or column must add up to the target. It is Nonogram with arithmetic swapped in. 2005 · 5×5 – 12×12 · 10 sites Stitches Draw short stitches on cell borders to sew regions together. A digit says how many stitches leave that cell. 2008 · 8×8 – 16×16 · 10 sites Shakashaka Drop half-cell right triangles into the grid so the remaining white space breaks into rectangles. A digit counts the triangles touching it — convoluted to describe, excellent to play. 2006 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 10 sites Numberlink Matching digits come in pairs; join them with paths that never cross, and fill the board. The gentlest entry point in the whole atlas. 1890 · 5×5 – 15×15 · 9 sites

Number & arithmetic

18
Sudoku Fill every row, column and 3×3 box with 1–9 without repeats. For most players it is the front door to logic puzzles, and the most varied family in the atlas. 1979 · 4×4 – 9×9 (16×16 rare) · 40 sites Killer Sudoku Standard Sudoku plus dotted cages whose digits add to a corner total. It welds elimination onto addition, and it is the most popular variant by a wide margin. 1995 · 9×9 · 9 sites Jigsaw Sudoku Swap the nine 3×3 boxes for nine ragged regions. One sentence changes the rules, and it rewrites almost every technique you know. 1994 · 9×9 · 6 sites Thermometer Sudoku Thermometers sit on the grid and their digits must strictly increase from bulb to tip. It adds a directional constraint, and the reasoning feels nothing like plain Sudoku. 2008 · 9×9 · 5 sites Arrow Sudoku The digit in a circle must equal the sum of the cells its arrow passes through. It smuggles arithmetic into Sudoku, and it is a fixture of modern championships. 2009 · 9×9 · 5 sites X-Sudoku Both main diagonals must also contain 1–9. One extra rule, and a batch of standard techniques become useful again. 2005 · 9×9 · 5 sites Samurai Sudoku Five Sudoku grids overlap at the corners. It adds no new rule; it just wears you down with scale and shared regions. 2003 · Five linked 9×9 (21×21) · 5 sites Kropki A white dot means two neighbours differ by one; a black dot means one is exactly double the other. Tiny amounts of information, and it pushes Sudoku reasoning hard. 2006 · 4×4 – 9×9 · 5 sites Futoshiki Greater-than signs between cells tell you which is larger, while rows and columns still hold 1–N once each. The gentlest cousin Sudoku has. 2001 · 4×4 – 9×9 · 7 sites Kakuro The skeleton of a crossword, the constraints of Sudoku, and arithmetic on top. Every sum has a limited set of non-repeating combinations, and that table is your dictionary. 1950 · 9×9 – 25×25 · 9 sites KenKen A Latin square with bold cages that must produce a target using + − × ÷. It uses all four operations, which is why math teachers love it. 2004 · 3×3 – 9×9 · 5 sites Skyscrapers One building per cell, heights 1–N with no repeats. The number at the edge says how many buildings you can see from there — taller ones hide the shorter ones behind. 1990 · 4×4 – 9×9 · 2 sites Tenner Grid Just ten columns and two to five rows. Each column holds distinct digits from 0–9, and neighbours may never be consecutive. Small board, high density, very good on a commute. 2008 · 10×2 – 10×5 · 1 site Binairo Only 0 and 1. Each row and column holds equal numbers of both, and three identical digits may never sit in a row. Three rules, and it scales from 4×4 all the way to brutal 20×20 grids. 2004 · 4×4 – 20×20 · 2 sites Minesweeper A digit counts mines among the eight neighbours. The best-known logic game in the world, though only the no-guess version is a true puzzle. 1960 · 9×9 – 30×16 · 4 sites Ripple Effect Fill each bold room with 1 up to n, where n is the room size. Two identical digits must sit farther apart than the digit itself — an odd rule with real bite. 2005 · 8×8 – 16×16 · 9 sites Suguru Fill each irregular region with 1 up to n, and no two touching cells — diagonals included — may match. Tiny regions, a short rule, and surprisingly hard to put down. 2007 · 5×5 – 20×20 · 3 sites Hitori Black out the duplicate digits so that every row and column is left with no repeats. Three bans, and a very particular rhythm once it opens up. 1990 · 5×5 – 15×15 · 10 sites

Region & placement

10
Fillomino Given digits state a region's size; you grow them into connected blocks of exactly that many cells. It turns the act of dividing itself into the puzzle. 1990 · 5×5 – 20×20 · 10 sites Galaxies Every dot is the center of a galaxy, and each region must be 180° rotationally symmetric about it. The finished grid genuinely looks like a spiral. 2003 · 8×8 – 25×25 · 10 sites Dominosa A full set of dominoes has been scattered across a grid; you have to recover where each tile's edge falls. The purest of the "find the pairing" types. 1995 · 7×8 – 10×11 · 10 sites Tatami Tile the grid with tatami mats, and never let four corners meet at one point. That cross ban sounds harmless and turns out to be lethal. 2006 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 9 sites Star Battle Place a set number of stars in every region, row and column, with no two stars touching even diagonally. Minimal rules, and a fixture of the World Puzzle Championship. 2003 · 8×8 – 15×15 · 11 sites Aquarium Pour water into fish tanks. Once any cell in a row holds water, the whole row does — the gravity rule makes it unusually easy to read at a glance. 2000 · 6×6 – 15×15 · 10 sites Battleships The fleet is hidden in the grid and the line counts tell you how many cells each row occupies. Puzzle editions add fragment hints so the solution is unique. 1931 · 8×8 – 12×12 · 10 sites Tents Pitch one tent beside every tree, orthogonally, and never let two tents touch even diagonally. The most elegant pairing-plus-spacing puzzle there is. 1989 · 8×8 – 20×20 · 10 sites Magnets Drop positive and negative poles into the grid; like poles repel, so neighbours cannot match. The counts tell you how many of each a line holds. 2000 · 5×5 – 12×12 · 9 sites Logic Grid Given a handful of clues, match up sets of attributes — who owns the zebra, who drinks water. No grid art, just pure propositional reasoning. 1900 · Table (2×3 – 5×6) · 3 sites

Word puzzles

7
Crossword Clues run across and down; every crossing square must satisfy both words. The longest-lived word puzzle there is. 1913 · 15×15 / American · 6 sites Cryptic crossword Each clue is a mini-puzzle: half definition, half wordplay, both pointing at the same word. Intimidating, but every square is double-locked. 1924 · 15×15 cryptic · 1 site Anagram Reorder a set of letters into a meaningful word. One line of rules; the only hard part is seeing what assembles. 1914 · Scrambled letters · 1 site Word search Circle every word from the list inside a dense letter grid. The gentlest word puzzle — good warm-up and for kids. 1968 · Letter grid · 3 sites Rebus Words, pictures and symbols arranged by size and position spell a phrase. You read the layout, not just the letters. 1500 · Picture + words · 1 site Cryptogram Each letter is swapped for another fixed letter; you recover the sentence from frequency and common words. You play the code-breaker. 1840 · Cipher text · 2 sites Acrostic Clue words run across, a quotation reads down the columns; the two directions feed each other letters. More literary than a crossword, and more patient. 1934 · Quote grid · 2 sites

Riddles & brain-teasers

4
Riddle A description in disguise points at a thing; the answer is usually everyday, just never phrased that way. 2 sites Lateral-thinking puzzle You get an absurd setup and ask yes/no questions to surface the truth. No fixed method — only a different angle. 1967 · 2 sites Brain-teaser It dodges logic on purpose — puns, ambiguity or wording traps make you wrong. The fun is the gotcha, not the difficulty. 2 sites Lantern riddle A Chinese-language word game: characters are split and recombined by sound, shape and meaning; the clue locks onto the answer instead of stating it. Expect a Chinese reading barrier. 2 sites

Classic logic puzzles

4
Knights and Knaves On the island everyone tells only truth or only lies; you infer who is who from what they say. Raymond Smullyan turned it into an art. 1978 · 2 sites River crossing People and goods cross in batches; the boat holds few; some pairs cannot be left alone. At heart a state-space search. 2 sites Balance puzzle One ball differs in weight among identical-looking ones; find it in the fewest weighings. A classic entry to information theory. 2 sites Syllogism Given two premises, judge whether the conclusion necessarily follows. It trains what premises do and do not imply. 2 sites

Mechanical & physical puzzles

5
Tangram Seven pieces form a given silhouette; it is intuition about area and the 45° hypotenuse. Among the oldest addictive physical puzzles. 1813 · 7 pieces · 2 sites Rubik's Cube A scrambled cube must be solved face by face. Looks spatial, but is muscle memory of layered algorithms. 1974 · 3×3 · 1 site Burr puzzle Notched sticks interlock into a clump; take it apart and rebuild. The snag is all in the mortise-and-tenon interference. Six sticks · No dedicated site listed yet Huarong Dao Walk Cao Cao out the bottom gap; pieces only slide, never lift. The most famous sliding-block puzzle. 4×5 · No dedicated site listed yet Matchstick puzzle Move or add a few sticks to make an equation or shape hold. Minimal constraints, huge variety. Matchsticks · 1 site

Board puzzles

4
Chess puzzle From a given position, find the winning line — usually a mate or material gain. It tests calculation, not play. 8×8 · 2 sites Go problem A few local stones; find the unique key point to live or kill. The most efficient way to train shape sense. 19×19 / local · 1 site Gomoku Black and white alternate; first to five in a row wins. Simple rules, but bans and first-move control add depth. 15×15 · 2 sites Nine Men's Morris Form a line of three to remove an opponent stone; reduce them to two or trap them. Few rules, deep "mill" play. 24 points · No dedicated site listed yet

Escape & puzzle hunts

2
Escape room Locked in a themed room, you search and solve your way out before time runs out. It packs many puzzle kinds into one story. 2007 · Physical room · 1 site Puzzle hunt A chain of standalone puzzles whose answers feed a metapuzzle. Events like MIT Mystery Hunt turn solving into a team expedition. 1997 · Multi-site / city-wide · 1 site

Math puzzles

3
Geometry dissection Cut a figure into pieces and reassemble another, or find a length. It tests area conservation and transform vision. 1 site Number-theory puzzle Play with divisibility, remainders and primes over the integers. Clean rules, hard because you must think mod. 1 site Programming puzzle Math plus code yields an exact answer; the bar is "compute it and write it". Project Euler is the benchmark. 2001 · 2 sites

Mazes & patterns

2
Maze Walk from entrance to exit; walls only block, never hint. The simplest and most replayable spatial puzzle. Path network · 2 sites Pattern recognition Given a run of numbers or figures, infer the next. It tests induction and "seeing in another dimension". 1 site

Visual observation

3
Spot the difference Two nearly identical pictures side by side; find every altered detail. Observation, not formula. Two pictures · 1 site Hidden object A busy scene plus a list — find every camouflaged item. More "search" than side-by-side compare. Single scene · 1 site Optical illusion The picture tricks the eye: equal lengths look unequal, or one drawing hides two figures. Puzzle form asks "what do you see / which is longer". 1 site
About this page
  • Last updated 2026-09-22
  • Source Editorial type atlas maintained by TappyPotato
  • Audience Players browsing puzzle types before opening a rule page
  • Covers Grouped list of 82 puzzle types with short ledes and links to rule pages
  • Does not cover Full rules on this overview, hosted puzzles, worked solutions, third-party uptime guarantees
  • Not advice This page is puzzle reference content only. It does not constitute financial, legal, medical or other professional advice.
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