New to Nonograms? Learn the rules on a 5×5, find the overlaps, and cross out squares as you go. Those three habits finish most small puzzles. This page puts the guides in that order, with a six-row warm-up to check yourself before you move up a size.
Your path, in order
- Learn the rules. The Nonogram rules page solves a 5×5 heart step by step. The one idea to take away: each number is a run of filled squares, in order, with at least one empty square between runs.
- Solve your first 5×5 with overlaps. Look for clues that are big for their line, and fill the squares a block covers whichever way it sits. The slack rule tells you which: any block longer than the slack has an overlap.
- Cross out as you go. Every finished line gets its other squares crossed out. Crosses are what the crossing lines need.
- Learn the techniques one at a time. How to solve Nonograms covers all six; start with finished lines, overlap and edges.
- Do the warm-up below. Six rows, each one practising an idea from the guides above.
- Pick up speed. The Nonogram tips page adds the opening sweep and working back and forth.
- When a puzzle goes wrong, read the six common mistakes. The big one is filling a square before it’s certain.
- Move up a size when you’re ready (see below).
Warm-up: six rows
Each row is ten squares. Work out what you can be sure of, then open the answer. Every answer comes from the row on its own.
1. 7 in an empty row
Show the answer
Squares 4 to 7 are filled. A line of 10 with the clue 7 has a slack of 3, so the 7 has 7 − 3 = 4 squares that are certain, whichever way it sits.
2. 2 1 4 in an empty row
Show the answer
The clue needs 2 + 1 + 4, plus a gap between each, which is 9 squares, so the slack is 1. The 2 gets one certain square (square 2), the 1 gets none, and the 4 gets three (squares 7 to 9).
3. 4 1 3 in an empty row
Show the answer
The clue needs 4 + 1 + 3 plus two gaps: exactly 10 squares, the whole row. There’s only one way to fill it, so you can fill the blocks and cross out the gaps.
4. 1 3, with four squares already filled
Show the answer
The row already has a run of 1 (square 2) and a run of 3 (squares 5 to 7), so it’s finished. Cross out every other square.
5. 5, with square 3 filled
Show the answer
The 5 has to cover square 3, and it can’t start before square 1, so it reaches at least square 5: fill squares 4 and 5. It also can’t start after square 3, so it ends by square 7, which means squares 8 to 10 are crossed out.
6. 3 2, with squares 1 and 5 crossed out
Show the answer
Pack the blocks to the right: the 2 takes squares 9 and 10, with square 8 as its gap, so the 3 has to end by square 7. It can’t sit across the cross at square 5, so the only place left is squares 2 to 4, which it fills exactly. The 2 could still be anywhere in squares 6 to 10.
When to move up a size
You’re ready for 10×10 when you can finish a 5×5 without guessing, you spot overlaps without counting them out, and you cross out finished lines without thinking about it.
The bigger sizes don’t just take longer; they ask for more techniques. On the game’s puzzles, a 5×5 almost never needs more than overlaps and finished lines. On 10×10, edges and out-of-reach start to matter, and about one puzzle in five needs you to list the arrangements of a line. On 15×15, seven puzzles in ten do, and the average 15×15 needs it about six times.