Updated July 2026 — rewritten for the new Loop Maze
Every Loop Maze puzzle has a single goal: draw one unbroken closed loop that passes through every lit node on the board exactly once. No crossings, no branches, no dead ends — your line must come back around to where it started. If a single node is left unvisited, the loop won't close.
Corners are free deductions: a corner node has only two neighbours, so the loop must enter through one and leave through the other. Trace those forced turns first — on many boards, corner logic alone solves a third of the puzzle before you have to think.
Nodes along the border have three neighbours, but if one of them is blocked by a wall or a hole, they behave like corners — two forced connections. Whenever a node is down to exactly two open neighbours, both of those links are certain. Draw them.
From World 2, boards have holes; from World 3, red walls block the gap between two nodes. Both do the same thing to your logic: they remove options. Fewer options means more forced moves — hunt for the node that just lost its third neighbour, because it now tells you exactly where the loop goes.
World 4 introduces anchor segments: gold links that must be part of your final loop. Treat each anchor as two half-commitments — the nodes at either end each have one connection already spent. A node touching two anchors is completely solved. If your finished loop skips an anchor, it won't count, so build around them from the start.
Imagine the board as a checkerboard. Your loop always alternates colours, which is why every Loop Maze board has an equal number of "black" and "white" nodes. You can use this: if a region connects to the rest of the board through a narrow neck, count its nodes — a loop can only dip into a pocket and come back out an even number of cells at a time.
First Loops teaches the rule on clean rectangles. Broken Ground adds holes. Walls closes off paths. Anchors makes you plan around fixed segments, and The Gauntlet mixes everything on 8×8 boards. Finish a level without hints for three stars.
If loop-drawing clicks for you, try Echo Maze - a record-and-replay maze where your past selves hold the doors open - or Tumbloop, which turns route-planning into block-rolling. There are more free logic games on Skorven, and the blog has further guides.
