How to solve Tapa
Read each clue as a pattern of shaded runs around it, fit the big clues first, then keep the wall in one piece with no 2×2 blocks.
How it works
Tapa gives you a grid with some clue cells. You shade cells to build one wall: every shaded cell joins the others side to side, and no 2×2 block is all shaded.
A tapa clue lists the runs of shaded cells in the 8 cells around it. A 3 means three shaded cells in a row around the clue, and nothing else shaded there. 1 1 means two single cells with white between them. Order doesn’t matter, and clue cells are never shaded.
Every puzzle here has a unique solution. You never need to guess, though harder days need you to try it and see.
An order that works
Start with the clues that leave the least room: big single numbers like 5, 6 and 7, and clues with several runs, like 1 1 3. A 0 is free: all eight cells around it are white.
Next look for 2×2 squares with three wall cells, and for pieces of wall with one way out. Then go back to the clues: every cell you settle narrows them again.
When nothing is left, pick a cell and suppose it is wall. If a clue then has no way to fit, or the wall is cut in two, the cell is white.
Worth memorizing
A clue is a list of runs.
Count shaded runs in the 8 cells around it. Order doesn’t matter.
No 2×2 of wall.
Three wall cells in a square make the fourth white.
The wall is one piece.
A piece with one way out must take it.
Practice
0 of 4 rightAt the start, what is the ringed cell?
Using clue fit, what is the ringed cell?
What is the ringed cell?
The wall must be one piece. What is the ringed cell?