If you are new to Slitherlink puzzles and are daunted by the rules or unsure how to get started, our ‘My First Slitherlink’ puzzles will get you started! These have been created for absolute beginners and have been carefully designed to get you confident and ready to move onto your first Slitherlink puzzles. Don’t forget to check out our Introduction to Slitherlink page for a walk through and more information.
Think of these as puzzles with training wheels 🙂
Who Is ‘My First Slitherlink’ Puzzles Good For?
All of our ‘My First’ puzzles have been designed for complete beginners. However, importantly they are designed to help visual learners see and comprehend the process in visual form. ‘My First’ puzzles are perfect for beginners, however if you have done Slitherlink puzzles before then they are not for you!
You will notice we only have 6 puzzles in each level, this is because we anticipate after you’ve gone through the puzzles below, you’ll be ready to move onto our free printable Slitherlink puzzles from beginner to advanced HERE!
Rules for Slitherlink
Before we start, here’s a reminder of the rules for Slitherlink:
- The puzzle is played on a rectangular grid of dots.
- Some of the squares formed by the dots have numbers inside them.
- The objective is to connect adjacent dots with horizontal and vertical lines so that the lines form a single loop with no loose ends.
- The number in a square tells you how many lines must surround that square.
- Empty squares may be surrounded by any number of lines.
- The loop cannot cross itself or branch off.
Here are some tips for solving Slitherlink puzzles:
- Start by looking at the numbers in the squares. These will give you clues about how many lines you need to draw in each area.
- Remember that it can be useful to mark in another color where you know lines can’t be drawn, for example around the number 0.
- It’s often helpful to think of the loop as a snake. The snake must start and end at the same point, and it can’t go through any squares more than once.
Download ‘My First Slitherlink’ Puzzles
You will find three different puzzle downloads. There are solutions in each, however you don’t really need them with the first two, however I have included them as it will help beginner puzzlers get used to the idea of checking solutions.
Step I – Slitherlink ‘Trace’
In this set of puzzles you will see that the path is shown in light grey on the puzzle grid. This is to show the player how the path is achieved by following the clues. When completing this puzzle do not just trace the path – instead, think about how the path is created following the clues. You will see the path is very feint, that is because it is there as a guide only.
The aim of this is to build familiarity and confidence with the concept of solving the Slitherlink puzzle.
My First Slitherlink Trace_puzzlebreaksStep 2 – Gaps
In this set of puzzles you will see that we have left gaps in the path. This has been designed to help beginners get used to analysing the clues and deducing next steps without having to worry about getting lost or making mistakes.
Step 3 – Beginner Puzzles
Next we have beginner puzzles for you! These are simple Slitherlink puzzles which have been designed to allow you to put into practice what you have seen above.
Remember to look for places where lines CAN’T be drawn as well as where they can. In these puzzles you will see there are a number of 0s on the grid. Lines cannot be drawn around these cells, so these are a great place to start to help you reduce the number of options.
My First Slitherlink Easy