How to Play the Arrow Puzzle
The whole game is one rule: an arrow can leave the board only if nothing is in front of its head. This page explains that rule, shows a tiny worked example, and lists every control in Arrow Puzzle Hub.
The one rule
Every arrow points in the direction of its head. Imagine a straight line starting at the head and running to the edge of the board. That line is the arrow's lane (see the glossary). If every square of the lane is empty, the arrow is free – tap it and it slides off. If any square of the lane is occupied by part of another arrow, the arrow is blocked.
You win when the board is empty. Because removing an arrow only ever opens space, you can never make a board unsolvable by removing a free arrow – so the only skill involved is spotting which arrow to remove next.
A two-step example
Here is a tiny board. The shaded strip is the blue arrow's lane.
Real boards are the same thing with dozens of arrows: each blocked arrow has a blocker, the blocker may have its own blocker, and you follow that chain until you reach an arrow that is free.
Reading bent arrows
Arrows can bend. Only the head decides the direction; the tail can curl wherever it likes. Two things follow:
- A bent arrow occupies more squares than its head suggests, so its tail can block a neighbour's lane from the side.
- When an arrow looks free but bumps, check whether a tail – not a head – is crossing its path. The blocker flashes red to tell you.
Controls
| Action | Mouse / touch | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Remove an arrow | Click or tap it | Tab to focus, then Enter |
| Undo last removal | Undo button | Z |
| Hint (highlights a free arrow) | Hint button | H |
| New puzzle | New puzzle button | N |
| Restart this board | Restart button | R |
| Share this exact board | Copy link button | – |
Modes and difficulty
Relaxed mode never penalises a blocked tap, so poking at the board is a fine way to learn. Classic mode gives you three hearts and every blocked tap costs one. Board sizes run from 6 × 6 (Easy) to 18 × 18 (Expert); the difficulty page has measured numbers for each.
Scoring
There are no points. A finished board reports your time, the number of blocked taps and the number of hints used, and your best time per difficulty is remembered in your browser. The daily puzzle also tracks a streak of consecutive days.
Playing the same board as a friend
The page address contains the board's seed number and difficulty (for example ?seed=482913&d=hard). Copy the link, or use the share buttons, and the other person gets exactly the same board.
Five common mistakes
- Reading the tail instead of the head. Always start from the arrowhead.
- Ignoring tails in your lane. Bends hide blockers.
- Hunting only for "the" solution. Any free arrow is a safe move; there is no wrong free move.
- Spamming taps in Classic mode. Each bump costs a heart – scan first.
- Never trying Hint. One hint, studied for why that arrow was free, teaches more than ten guesses. More ideas are in the strategy guide.