Puzzle Tips!

Wanna get better at nonogram puzzles? You've come to the right place! This page teaches you the basics of nonogram puzzles while also providing some neat tricks that'll help you clear them in record time.

What is a nonogram?

A nonogram is a puzzle that consists of a large grid containing many spaces. There are multiple panels hidden across the grid, and your job is to break the right spaces so you can uncover a hidden picture!

Let's practice with this puzzle.

This is the main playing space. For this puzzle, the grid has 10 spaces lined up at each side. Making it a 10 x 10 puzzle. Looking at the grid, it isn't clear which space contains a panel and which one doesn't. But by using the numbers shown to the left and top of the grid (the number guide), we can uncover our first series of panels.

Since there aren't any more panels that can be uncovered in this row, we'll add a mark to show that the next space is an incorrect space.

It looks like we've hit a roadblock. Even though we've solved a row, we still don't know where to go next. If we look at the number guide again, we can plot where the next panels are hiding.

If we go up from this panel, we could clear a column and find the answer for another row. But we don't know if any of those spaces could be the wrong ones.

But if we go down, we'll find the next hidden panel. The reason we're going down instead of up is because of the numbers and the way the grid is set up.

Starting from the panel we just found, there's 5 more to the right that make up the 6 panels hinted in the number guide. Two spaces past that lies another panel, and two spaces after that panel lies the final panel in the row. By counting the number of spaces on a row or column using the number guide, you can pinpoint where the panels might be hidden. You can also use nearby rows and columns as clues.

Since there's a mark above our current position, it only makes sense that the remaining 2 panels in the column are downward. So we'll break them open and move on.

One thing about nonogram puzzles is that the answer to the puzzle starts to slowly reveal itself as you continue to work on it.

Just as we start to mark all the incorrect spaces, we unknowingly start to figure out the locations of nearby panels. This row calls for 7 panels in a row of 10 spaces. Since we've already marked 3 spaces in the same row, we immediately break open the hidden panels and clear another row.

This row has 5 hidden panels. But any of those spaces could be the wrong ones. Fortunately, there's enough room to conclude that 4 panels are hidden in the middle of the row.

Looking at the grid again, we can already make out some hidden panels that are close by. Since it wouldn't make sense to keep moving right, we conclude that the 5th panel in this row is located on the left.

We can also see the other 3 panels needed to complete the 2nd column. So we'll move diagonally from our current position and break them open.

Since we've uncovered all the other panels and marked all the incorrect spaces, that makes the grid look organized and makes it easier to find missing panels. The puzzle is almost complete. But we've still got a few more panels to find.

The 3rd and 6th columns call for 4 panels along with an extra one at the top. The remaining spaces make it obvious where those panels are hidden. So we'll go ahead and break them.

That just leaves these last two spaces, which definitely contain panels.

We've finally solved the puzzle and unlocked the hidden picture! It's a cup of coffee!

Now that you've learned the gist of nonograms, try your hand at solving the puzzles listed below for a real challenge!