New to Tents? Learn the three rules on a 6×6, then get used to two ideas: every square with no tree beside it is grass, and every row and column is a counting problem. Those two finish most Easy levels in the game. This page puts the guides in that order, with five small warm-up puzzles to check yourself before you move up a size.
Your path, in order
- Learn the rules. The Tents rules page solves the game’s first level step by step. The one idea to take away: a tent of its own beside every tree, no tents touching, and the right number in every row and column.
- Mark grass far from trees. Every square with no tree beside it, before anything else.
- Count every line. A line with all its tents is grass everywhere else; a line with just enough open squares is all tents.
- Mark grass around every tent, corners included.
- Do the warm-up below. Five small puzzles, each needing one idea from the guides.
- Learn the other techniques. How to solve Tents covers all five.
- When a puzzle goes wrong, read the six common mistakes. The big one is placing a tent before it’s certain.
- Move up a size when you’re ready (see below).
Warm-up: five small puzzles
Solve each one, then open the answer to check, with the idea that unlocks it. Apart from that idea, each one needs only grass far from trees and counting rows and columns.
1. Counting only
Show the answer
Mark grass far from the trees, and every row and column is then either finished or down to just enough room. Nothing else is needed.
2. Around a tent
Show the answer
Once the tent in row 2, column 2 is in, the squares at its lower corners, row 3 columns 1 and 3, are grass: tents never touch, even diagonally. Counting does the rest.
3. One place left
Show the answer
After the counting, the tree in row 2, column 5 has only one square left beside it for its tent: row 1, column 5, above it.
4. Only one way
Show the answer
Row 3 needs two tents in its first three squares, and tents can’t sit side by side. The only way is columns 1 and 3, so column 2 is grass.
5. Either way
Show the answer
Partway through, row 2 needs one tent, in column 1 or column 2. Either way, it touches row 3, column 2, so that square is grass.
When to move up a size
You’re ready for Medium (8×8) when you can finish Easy levels without guessing, you mark grass around tents without thinking, and you count columns as easily as rows.
The bigger grids ask for a little more: 44 of the 50 Medium levels need neighbours, 21 need one place left and 16 need every arrangement. On Hard (10×10), every level needs every arrangement.