Puzzle guide
How to solve Nurimisaki
Nurimisaki means "paint a cape". You colour cells black so that the white cells form one winding path, and every circle marks a cape: a white dead end. A number in a circle tells you how long that cape runs in a straight line. Here is how to paint it.
The rules
- A circle is a white dead end, called a cape: it has just one white neighbour. A number counts the cape's white cells in a straight line, circle included.
- All white cells join up into one path. A white cell without a circle has at least two white neighbours.
- No 2×2 square may be all white or all black.
- Cells left open count as white.
A solved puzzle
Your first moves
- Look at circles in corners and on edges: they have few neighbours, so their one white neighbour is easy to find.
- Wherever three cells of a 2×2 square have the same colour, the fourth gets the other one.
- A white cell without a circle needs two white neighbours. A corner cell that can't get two is black.
- For each number, count how far its cape can run in each direction. Often only one direction fits.
Techniques, step by step
A cape has one way out
The circle in the corner is a cape, so exactly one of its neighbours is white. The cell to its right is already black, so the only one left, below it, must be the white one. It works the other way too: as soon as a circle has its white neighbour, all its other neighbours are black.
No 2×2 of one colour
Three cells of this 2×2 square are black. If the fourth were black too, the square would be all black, which is not allowed. So it is white: mark it with an X. Three white cells in a square force the fourth to be black in the same way.
Only circles are dead ends
A white cell without a circle needs at least two white neighbours: only capes may be dead ends. The corner cell here has just two neighbours, and one of them is black. It could never get two white neighbours, so it must be black. This is the rule that makes Nurimisaki different from Nurikabe.
How far a cape reaches
This circle says 3, and its only open direction is to the right. So the cape runs three cells that way, the circle and two more, and the next cell must be black to stop it. Look for numbered circles with just one direction left: they give you a whole run at once.
Keep the path in one piece
All the white cells must form one connected path. If making a cell black would cut the white cells into two parts, that cell must be white. On hard boards, look for narrow places where the path has only one way through.
Either way, this cell
Sometimes a numbered circle still has two directions its cape could take. Try both: if every way puts the same cell black, or the same cell white, that cell is decided, whichever way the cape goes.
Common mistakes
- A dead end without a circle. Every white cell without a circle needs two white neighbours.
- A cape with two ways out. A circle has exactly one white neighbour, never two.
- A 2×2 block of one colour. Check both colours: four black cells in a square are just as wrong as four white ones.
- White cells in two pieces. The app does not mark a split path while you play, so check it yourself.
Questions and answers
Ready to play?
Give every cape one way out, keep 2×2 squares mixed, allow no other dead ends and measure each numbered cape. That is how the Nurimisaki path is painted.