Signpost

Connect all the squares together into a sequence, so that every square’s arrow points towards the square that follows it (though the next square can be any distance away in that direction).

Controls

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).

Left-drag from a square to the square that should follow it, or right-drag from a square to the square that should precede it.

Left-drag a square off the grid to break all links to it. Right-drag a square off the grid to break all links to it and everything else in its connected chain. (A chain that already runs into one of the given numbers is not broken up this way: only the square you dragged loses its links.)

The keyboard can also be used. The arrow keys move a cursor. Press Enter on a square, move to the square that should follow it and press Enter again to link them; Space does the same the other way round, starting from the square that should come second. X breaks all links to the square under the cursor, and Shift+X breaks up its whole chain as a right-drag off the grid does.

Hints

Hint explains the next link rather than simply making it, and says why no other link will do. It works from the links you have already made, so it carries on from wherever you are; if one of them is wrong, it asks you to fix the highlighted mistakes first.

• A ring marks the link the step decides, at both ends: the arrow it leaves by is drawn in the hint color, and the square it arrives at is ringed.
• An outline marks the other squares whose arrows point at the ringed square, when the sentence says why none of them can lead into it.
• Stripes mark the squares an arrow points at, when the sentence says which of them can come next.

These are the ideas the hint teaches, from the plainest up:

• Only one square can come next. Of the squares an arrow points at, every one but one may be ruled out: it already follows another square, it is in the arrow’s own chain (linking them would close a loop), or it holds the wrong number. The one left must follow the arrow.
• Only one arrow can lead in. Every square but the first needs a square before it, and when every arrow pointing at a square but one is ruled out the same way, that one must lead into it.

When a number’s arrow points at the square holding the next number, the board links the two itself, so the hint never asks you for that link.

On an Unreasonable board there comes a point where every arrow still has more than one square it could lead to, and every square more than one arrow that could lead into it. The hint then says that nothing further follows by deduction instead of choosing for you. Save your position and try a link from an arrow with only two or three squares left to choose from: if it is wrong, before long some square has nothing that can lead into it, or a chain cannot fit between two numbers. The hint carries on from whatever you decide.

Signpost parameters

These parameters are available from the ‘Custom type…’ option on the ‘Type’ menu.

Width, Height

Size of the grid in squares. Either may be 1, but not both. Each must be at least 1.

Start and end in corners

Make the sequence start in the top left corner and end in the bottom right one. Otherwise its first and last squares can be anywhere in the grid.

Difficulty

Determine the difficulty of the generated puzzle; see what the names mean. An Easy puzzle can be finished one forced link at a time: there is always an arrow with only one square it can lead to, or a square only one arrow can lead into. An Unreasonable one has a single solution that those steps stop short of, so somewhere you have to try a link and see what follows. The Hint button stops where the forced links do.

More help

• Features every puzzle shares: hints, checking your work, checkpoints, playing by touch
• Help home