How to Play Rooms
Rooms is a shading puzzle with a twist: the walls between rooms matter as much as the numbers inside them.
The rules
- The grid is divided into rooms by thick lines. A number in a room gives exactly how many of its cells are shaded. Rooms without a number are free.
- Shaded cells never touch along a side.
- All unshaded cells form one connected area.
- No straight run of unshaded cells, in a row or column, passes through three rooms.
Playing on kawu
Tap a cell to shade it, again to mark it with a dot, and a third time to clear. Shaded cells that touch, over-full rooms and, once everything is decided, a cut area or a long run turn red; a room's number turns green when it is complete. Sizes 6×6, 7×7 and 8×8; the daily puzzle is 7×7 and timed. Hint fixes a wrong mark first, then shades a cell in a numbered room.
Next: Rooms solving tips.
Frequently asked questions
What does the three-room rule mean exactly?
Look along any row or column at a stretch of unshaded cells between two shaded cells (or the edge). If that stretch lies in three or more different rooms, it is illegal. A stretch inside one room or spanning two neighbouring rooms is fine.
What about rooms without a number?
They may contain any number of shaded cells, including none, as long as the other rules hold.
Last updated 2026-10-21