Slide the grid squares around so that they all join up into a single connected network with no loops.
Squares connected to the source, the solid box the power comes from, are lit up. Aim to light up every square. No connection may cross a barrier, a heavy gray line between squares.
The game mode says where the network may run:
On a touch screen, a tap does what a click does, and a long press what a right-click does (more ways to right-click).
Click on the arrows at the edges of the grid to move a row or column left, right, up or down. The square that falls off the end of the row comes back on the other end.
Right-click an arrow to slide the line the opposite way.
On the keyboard, the arrow keys move a cursor round the arrows at the edges, skipping the source’s row and column, and Enter or Space presses the arrow under it.
The source never moves — the row and the column it sits in cannot be slid, which is why no arrows are drawn beside them. So a square sharing the source’s row can only be shifted by sliding its column, and vice versa, and the network has to be built up around the source where it stands.
On harder levels, there are fewer barriers, which makes it harder rather than easier!
Hint shows the next slide rather than simply making it. Nothing in Netslide is forced by logic, so the hint searches for a way to finish from where you are, one slide at a time, and tells you what each slide is for.
A step ends by saying whether the piece arrives where it belongs (or beside the source), or is only setting up.
The search looks only so far ahead. When it cannot find a way to finish from your position, the hint says so rather than guessing: play a few slides of your own and ask again, or use Show solution….
These parameters are available from the ‘Custom type…’ option on the ‘Type’ menu.