What Are Tapa Puzzles?
Tapa is an engaging grid-based logic puzzle that originated in Turkey and was popularized by the renowned puzzle creator Serkan Yürekli. Combining elements of shading and deduction, Tapa challenges solvers to blacken cells in a grid based on numerical clues while adhering to specific connectivity rules.
These puzzles appeal to fans of nonograms, minesweeper, and other logic-based games, offering a perfect blend of strategy and pattern recognition. With their elegant rules and satisfying “aha!” moments, Tapa puzzles are a favorite among both casual solvers and dedicated puzzle enthusiasts.
The Rules of Tapa
Unravel the Logic: An Introduction to Tapa Puzzles
Welcome to the captivating world of Tapa, a grid-based logic puzzle that will test your deductive reasoning and spatial awareness. If you’re a fan of Sudoku, Nonograms, or other logic challenges, you’re about to discover a new obsession. Tapa puzzles offer a unique blend of simple rules and complex solutions, making them accessible to beginners while still providing a satisfying challenge for seasoned puzzle enthusiasts.
A Modern Classic with Turkish Roots
Born in 2007 from the mind of Turkish puzzle designer Serkan Yürekli, Tapa has quickly grown in popularity within the global puzzle community. Its name is a shortened form of “Turkish Area Painting,” a nod to its origin and its core mechanic of shading a grid. Despite its relatively recent creation, Tapa has established itself as a modern classic, celebrated for its elegant logic and the beautiful patterns that emerge from its solutions. These puzzles appeal to anyone who enjoys a methodical, step-by-step thought process and the “aha!” moment when a complex grid finally yields to pure logic.
The Rules of the Grid
At first glance, a Tapa puzzle is a simple, empty grid with a few numbered cells. Your goal is to shade some of the empty cells to create a single, continuous wall of black squares. The numbers in the clue cells are your only guide, and they follow a strict set of rules:
- Form a Single, Connected Wall: All the shaded cells must be connected to each other, either horizontally or vertically, to form one continuous area.
- No 2×2 Shaded Squares: You are not allowed to have a 2×2 square of shaded cells anywhere in the grid.
- Clues Reveal Adjacent Shaded Blocks: The numbers in a clue cell tell you the lengths of the consecutive blocks of shaded cells in the eight squares immediately surrounding that clue.
- Order Doesn’t Matter: If a clue cell has more than one number, the order in which the blocks of shaded cells appear around the clue does not matter.
- Separation is Key: When a clue cell contains multiple numbers, there must be at least one unshaded cell between each of the corresponding shaded blocks.
- Clue Cells Remain Empty: The cells containing the number clues are part of the grid’s landscape but are never shaded themselves.
Note: While the clue cells tell you the number of cells to be shaded immediately surrounding that clue – you will also shade other cells as part of the puzzle in order to create the single continuous wall of black cells. The rule here is to honour the cells you can’t shade according to the rules, therefore it might be handy to mark these in some way as you go.
Now that you understand the “what” and the “why,” it’s time to delve into the “how.” In the following sections, we’ll walk through the fundamental techniques and logical deductions that will transform you from a novice into a confident Tapa solver. Get your pencils (and erasers!) ready.
Tapa Puzzle Walk Through
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the process of solving this tapa logic puzzle, I’ll demonstrate how the rules work and share some tips for solving 🙂
1/ What we are trying to achieve
Before we start – let’s look at what we are trying to achieve. Note how the shaded cells form a single wall in the grid. Every shaded cell is joined on one or two sides, horizontally or vertically. Cells touching at the corners (id diagonally) don’t count.
Also, note that not all cells are shaded!
1/ Start with the large numbers and cells with a single solution
Take a look at the grid for cells where there is only one solution. This will typically be large numbers. For example, here we have a clue cell with the number 8. The only possible option here is to shade all 8 cells around the clue cells. Easy!
3/ Look for other single solution cells
If we look at the 6 which I’ve circled, you’ll also see there is just one single option here. There are only 6 cells which can be shaded surrounding the clue cell (remember, the clue cells cannot be shaded).
Three of the cells are already shaded – so we can go ahead and shade the rest.
4/ Continue shading cells
Again, we’re looking for cells with only one solution. The 5 which has been circled can only be shaded in one way. And the same goes for the neighbouring 3.
As before, some of the shaded cells are common between clues (this confused me when I first tried these puzzles!).
5/ Mark cells which CAN’T be shaded & multiple clues
You may find it useful to mark cells which can’t be shaded. In the top left you will see I have marked two cells which can’t be shaded. Why? Because one of the rules when solving tapa logic puzzles is that the shaded cells must form a continuous wall. These two cells are isolated from the others and it would be impossible to join them to the wall.
You will see some cells have two numbers. This indicates two distinct shading blocks which must be separate by a blank or clue (ie non-shaded) cell.
6/ Previously shaded cells help in deduction
As you continue shading cells you will see that the shading of previous cells helps in the deduction of which new cells should be shaded. In this example, there is only one option for 4, which then determines the shading for 2 and 6.
7/ Keep an eye out for multiple clue cells
Remember that when you see multiple clue cells, the placement of the clue numbers inside the cell do not represent which cells should be shaded. As you will see in this example-
Also, note how I have marked the cell which is to be left unshaded.
8/ All shaded cells must join
Remember the ‘all shaded cells must join’ rule. While there are various options for the 4 cells indicated, when we take into account that the shaded cells must form a single path, we have to shade the cells to the left of the 4 in order to join them to the single shaded cell marked with the arrow.
However, that only tells us which 3 of the 4 cells should be shaded. You will see below I marked the two other options with a ?
9/ Remember the no 2×2 rule!
The ‘no 2×2 cell blocks can be shaded’ rule is helpful when faced with multiple options. See how in this example, if I was to shade the cells as marked in red, I would be breaking this rule.
10/ Keep following the rules to complete the grid
It’s now just a case of competing the grid! You will see that it becomes apparent which of the cells I marked with a ? should be shaded when we take into account the ‘all shaded cells to join’ rule.
And there you have it!
Tapa logic puzzles are fun yet deceptively tricky 🙂 However, as with all grid based logic puzzles the clues are there to help you – and if you follow the clues, adhere to the rules, you’ll find the puzzle can be solved.
