Play in your browser · Logic

Pipes puzzle

Rotate the tiles until every pipe connects to the source and no pipe end points into nothing. Pick a 4×4, 5×5 or 6×6 grid; every puzzle is generated fresh and always has a solution.

This puzzle runs in your browser with JavaScript. Turn it on to play, or get Omni Brain for the full version.

How to play

Choose a 4×4, 5×5 or 6×6 grid. The source sits in the middle and is marked with a ring.
Tap or click a tile to turn it a quarter turn clockwise. On a keyboard, move with the arrow keys and turn with Enter or Space.
Tiles connected to the source light up. The puzzle is solved when every tile is lit and no pipe end points at a wall or at a closed side.

What your score means

Your result is the time from your first turn to the solved grid, and the number of turns is shown next to it. Every grid is a fresh random puzzle, so times vary from game to game, and a bigger grid takes longer.

Your best time on the 5×5 grid is kept as your personal best, and each grid size keeps its own best time in this browser. Fewer turns mean you traced the route before turning: corners and edges are the best place to start, because a tile there often fits only one way.

About the pipes puzzle

Pipes is a rotation puzzle on a square grid. Each tile holds a piece of pipe: an end, a straight, a bend or a T-junction. The tiles start turned at random, and your job is to rotate them until all the pipes form a single network from the source, with no open ends and no tile left out. Each grid here is built as a random tree of pipes grown from the source and then scrambled, so every puzzle has a solution. The puzzle rewards spatial reasoning and planning: you look at what a tile's neighbours allow, rule out the turns that would leave a pipe pointing at a wall, and fix the certain tiles at the edges and corners before working inwards. In Omni Brain the same rotate-the-tiles idea runs as Pipes, with difficulty that adapts to you: there the water has to flow from one corner to the other, and later levels add dead ends and a limit on turns.

B Core process · Route puzzles train planning a few moves ahead. The transfer is the habit of tracing a path before touching anything.

Techniques from the app

Trace before you turn. Follow the water with your eyes from the source to the drain and turn only the tiles on that route.
Work from both ends. Fix the first and the last tile first; the middle is usually forced by them.
Dead ends branch off. A T-piece on the route has one branch too many. Check which branch reaches the drain before you spend turns on it.

Train planning every day in Omni Brain

Pipes and many more short games, each with a technique you can use outside the app. Free every day.

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Questions about the pipes puzzle

How do you solve a pipes puzzle?

Start where the choice is smallest. A tile on an edge cannot point into the wall, and a corner tile often fits only one way. Fix those first, then work inwards: each fixed tile tells its neighbours which sides must connect.

Does every puzzle have a solution?

Yes. Each grid is generated as one connected tree of pipes from the source and then scrambled by turning the tiles, so turning them back always works. Sometimes more than one arrangement connects everything, and any of them counts.

When is a tile connected?

A tile is connected when a chain of joined pipes leads from it to the source. Two neighbouring tiles join only when both pipe ends meet. The puzzle is solved when every tile is connected and no pipe end is left open.

Which grid size should I choose?

Start with 4×4 to learn the pieces, then move to 5×5, the size used for your personal best. 6×6 has 36 tiles and takes longer to read, so it is a good next step once 5×5 feels easy.

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