How to play Room Shade
Shade squares so each numbered room has that many shaded, shaded squares never touch, white squares stay joined, and no straight white line crosses two walls. Also known as Rooms shading puzzle.
The rules
- A room with a number has exactly that many shaded squares; an unnumbered room can have any number.
- Shaded squares never share a side (touching at corners is fine).
- All white squares form one connected area.
- A straight horizontal or vertical run of white squares may not pass through more than two rooms.
Playing Room Shade on Puzzle Solvers
- Choose a size and a difficulty, then press New Puzzle.
- Tap a square to shade it, again for a dot (white), again to clear. Drag to do several.
- Room numbers turn green when the room has the right number shaded, and red when it has too many.
- Hint explains the next deduction — room counts, no touching, keeping the white joined and the two-walls rule.
Using the Room Shade solver
- Choose the size, draw the rooms and type the numbers (or press Sample).
- Press Solve and step through: room counts, no touching, white connections and the two-walls rule.
A worked example
A 1×2 room with a 1: one of its two squares is shaded. If one of them sits next to an already shaded square, the other is the shaded one.
Three rooms in a row, side by side: the run of squares crossing both walls needs at least one shaded square somewhere along it.
Strategies
- Big numbers. A 2 in a 1×3 room or a 4 in a 3×3 room leaves only one pattern of shading.
- Zeros. A 0 room is all white — dot every square in it straight away.
- Around shading. Every neighbour of a shaded square is white.
- Keep it joined. A shaded square must never cut a white square off; near walls and corners this decides a lot.
- Two walls. When a white run is about to stretch across a third room, one square along it must be shaded.
Common mistakes
- Cutting off a corner square with two shaded squares around it.
- Forgetting the two-walls rule for runs that cross unnumbered rooms.
- Shading two squares side by side across a wall — the no-touching rule ignores walls.
Where it comes from
Room-based shading puzzles grew out of the Japanese pencil-puzzle boom of the 1990s and are now a favourite in puzzle championships.
Frequently asked questions
Do unnumbered rooms need any shading?
No — they can have any number of shaded squares, including none, as long as the other rules hold.
Does the two-walls rule apply to shaded squares?
No — it is only about straight runs of white squares.
Is there always one answer?
Yes — every puzzle here is checked to have exactly one solution.
How do I solve one from a book?
Open the Room Shade Solver, draw the rooms, type the numbers and press Solve.
Keep going
- Play Room Shadea fresh puzzle every time
- Room Shade Solverstep by step, every move explained
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