To solve Tents, mark grass first and count second. A square with no tree beside it is grass. Then every row and column becomes a counting problem: a line with all its tents is grass everywhere else, and a line with just enough open squares is all tents. Cross out around every tent, give a tree its tent when it has only one place left, and on the bigger grids, list the ways a row can hold its tents. Five techniques cover every puzzle in the game.
New to Tents? Read the Tents rules first. This page assumes you know the three rules: a tent of its own beside every tree, no tents touching, and the row and column numbers.
1. Far from trees
Every tent sits beside a tree, so a square with no tree beside it is grass. Do this first: it’s a free start on every puzzle.
2. Finished lines
A row or column with all its tents is grass everywhere else. One with exactly as many open squares as tents still needed: those squares are all tents.
3. Neighbours
Tents never touch, so every square around a tent is grass, corners included.
4. One place left
A tree with only one square left beside it that could hold a tent gets its tent there. Check trees whose other neighbours are grass, other trees or the edge of the grid.
5. Every arrangement
When a row or column has only a few open squares, list every way its tents can fit: not side by side, not touching other tents, and leaving every tree a tent of its own. A square that’s a tent in every way is a tent; a square every way rules out is grass, including squares in the next row that every way touches.
How often each technique is needed
We solved every one of the game’s 150 levels by following the hints, which always use the simplest technique that works. This is how many times each technique was used, on average, per level:
| Technique | Easy 6×6 | Medium 8×8 | Hard 10×10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Far from trees | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Finished lines | 10.2 | 14.5 | 18.4 |
| Neighbours | 0.6 | 2.5 | 6.1 |
| One place left | 0.1 | 0.6 | 2.4 |
| Every arrangement | 0 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
Far from trees opens every level, and finished lines do most of the work after that. Every arrangement never comes up on Easy, is needed on 16 of the 50 Medium levels and on every Hard one.
An 8×8, solved in three stages
This is Medium level 38 from the game.
Stage 1: grass, then counting
Twenty squares have no tree beside them: grass. That makes rows and columns easy to count. Row 5 is numbered 0, row 6 has just enough room for its three tents, and so on: eight finished rows and columns in a row.
Stage 2: one place left
After a tent in column 6 clears its neighbours and column 5 fills, the tree in row 8, column 3 has only one square left beside it: row 8, column 2. Its tent goes there.
Stage 3: every arrangement of row 4
Row 4 needs one more tent, in column 1 or column 3. The tree in row 5, column 1 can only have row 4 column 1 or row 6 column 1, and row 6 column 1 is the only square the tree in row 7 has. So row 4’s tent goes in column 1, the square above it is grass, and three more finished lines complete the grid.
When you get stuck
- Mark grass far from trees if you haven’t, and around every tent.
- Count every row and column again. A line that’s just changed may be finished or down to just enough room.
- Check each tree. Does it still have more than one square for its tent? Is one of them really another tree’s only choice?
- List the ways for a short line. Two or three open squares rarely hold their tents more than one or two ways.
- Don’t guess. Every puzzle here can be finished by logic.