Dotlace

How to play

You win when both of these are true:
1. The gold line is one closed loop.
2. Every number matches.

The gold line is already there

You don't draw the line. It's a thread that is always on the board, weaving around the dots and bouncing off the edges.

Your laces make it bounce

Tap the gap between two dots to add a lace, the white bar. The line can't cross a lace, so it bounces off, like a ball off a wall. Tap again to take the lace away.

Numbers count laces

A number says how many laces must touch that dot. A lace only touches the two dots at its ends. Dots with no number can have any amount.

Watch out: the line can split

Here every number matches, but the laces have cut the line into 2 separate loops, shown in 2 colours. That doesn't count. You need exactly 1.

One more lace, and it's solved

This lace joins the two loops into one, and every number still matches.

How to work it out

You never have to guess. Use these in order:

  1. Start with the 0s. No lace can touch a 0, so every gap around it stays empty.
  2. Count the gaps left. A corner dot has 2 gaps, an edge dot 3, and a middle dot 4. If a number equals the gaps left around it, all of them are laces.
  3. Stop when it's full. Once a number is green, the other gaps around it must stay empty.
  4. Don't trap a small loop. If a lace would close off a small separate loop, that lace is wrong.
  5. Stuck? Test an idea. Try a lace. If it forces a red number or a separate loop, it was wrong, so take it off. It may lower your rank, and that's fine.

Ranks and streaks

Perfect Lace means no wasted taps. Clean Lace means one correction. Laced is any other solve. Solve the daily puzzle every day to build a streak.

Try it in Lesson 1