Shikaku
Medium
00:00
Classic
Medium Shikaku — what to expect
Medium moves up to an 8×8 board, and the forced clues no longer finish it. Partway through you run out of clues with one obvious rectangle, and you have to turn the question around: pick an empty cell and ask which clues could still reach it. If only one can, that clue has to cover that cell, whichever of its shapes turns out to be right. Claim a few of those and the forced placements start flowing again.
How to play Shikaku
- Divide the whole grid into rectangles. Every square ends up inside exactly one of them.
- Each rectangle contains exactly one number.
- That number is the rectangle’s AREA — how many squares it covers. A 6 can be 1×6, 6×1, 2×3 or 3×2, and nothing else.
- So a 1 is its own square, and a prime number can only be a single strip.
- Start where there is no choice: a number whose rectangle fits only one way, usually against an edge or a corner.
- Two numbers can never share a rectangle, which rules out a great many shapes before you try them.
- Every puzzle has one solution, reachable by logic alone, and every board has a move you can make from the empty grid.