TappyPotato logic puzzles

Pencil logic

Yajilin — rules and where to play

YAJILIN · Arrow Ring / Yajilin-kun / Yajirin

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.

Origin
1998 · Japan
Difficulty
★★★★★ 3–5 / 5
Time
10–45 min
Grid
8×8 – 23×23
Sites
9

Rules

  1. Draw one closed, non-crossing loop through every non-black cell.
  2. An arrow cell is not on the loop; the digit counts black cells in the arrow direction (it may be zero).
  3. Black cells never touch edge to edge.
  4. The loop may pass beside an arrow cell but never through it.

How to start

Clear every 0 arrow first

A zero makes every cell in that direction non-black, which turns them into loop cells on the spot.

The no-adjacent-blacks rule pays

Claim one black cell and all four neighbours turn white, which often cascades.

The "exactly two lines" rule still holds

Each loop cell has two lines. Two drawn means the rest are dead.

Where players get stuck

  • Blackening the arrow cell itself.
  • Forgetting the loop has to detour around arrow cells, so the path breaks mid-grid.

Play Yajilin

9 sites
Puzzle PicnicFree

Handmade Nikoli-style grids from a mix of setters, picked rather than dumped, playable in the page.

Open → PuzzleMixFreemium

Gareth Moore's site: Sudoku, then Slitherlink, Nurikabe, Futoshiki, Calcudoku and Hanjie.

Open → pzv.jpFree

A wider puzz.link-style database — more types, cut a bit finer.

Open → Penpa+Free

A fat editor for Japanese types: lots of shapes and marks, and it will ingest a puzz.link.

Open → pzplusFree

A community bank with difficulty and clear counts, browsable without leaving the page.

Open → Naoki InabaFree

Naoki Inaba writes a lot, including types you won't see many other places.

Open → Puzzle Square JPFree

A large Japanese variant archive that moves often, with difficulty marks on the grids.

Open → Grandmaster PuzzlesFree

Thomas Snyder's own handmade Sudoku and variants — world-champion difficulty, not generated filler.

Open → GridPuzzleFree

Dozens of grid logic types in the browser, with progress tracking and dailies.

Open →

Browse All-in-one portals →

Also on multi-type portals

Janko.atFree

Otto Janko's German/English archive: hundreds of playable types, all free.

Open → Puzzle RulesFree

Clean rule pages for dozens of types. Fastest way to learn a grid you haven't seen.

Open → NoqxFree

An ASP solver for 170-plus types. Connectivity puzzles tend to come back quickly.

Open → Nikoli Puzzle SolverFree

Z3 under the hood, 100-plus types, including hex and triangle boards.

Open →

Browse portals →

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About this page
  • Last updated 2026-09-22
  • Source Curated compilation of established puzzle rules and listed third-party play sites
  • Audience Players learning Yajilin rules or looking for online sites to play
  • Covers Rules summary, how to start, common pitfalls, and the dedicated play sites listed on this page
  • Does not cover Hosted puzzles, worked solutions, official contest rankings, third-party uptime or pricing 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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