Room Shade Solver

Room Shade Solver — Step by Step

Drag across squares to make the rooms, tap a room and type its number, then press Solve. Or play a generated puzzle and send it here with one click.

Room Shade Solver: rules, how to use it, tips

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.

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.

Using the 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.

Tips

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.

The full guide, with a worked example and common mistakes: How to play Room Shade.

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.