How to play Bimble

The rules

• The field is a square grid with a few numbered stones on it.
• Draw one walk that starts on stone 1, passes the stones in number order and finishes on the last stone.
• The walk visits every square exactly once, moving up, down, left or right (never diagonally).
• It can never cross a hedge: the thick green lines between some squares.
• A stile is crossed in a straight line: in one side, out of the opposite side.
• At an oak the walk turns: in one side, out of a side next to it.

Playing on a phone or a computer

• Put your finger on stone 1 and drag. The walk follows your finger one square at a time.
• Drag back over the walk to rub it out, or tap any square of the walk to cut it back to there and carry on from it.
• By default the walk will not step onto a stone out of turn, or onto the last stone before every other square is walked. You can switch this off under the field.
• If the walk goes straight through an oak or turns on a stile, it turns dashed and the squares after it go red. You can switch that off too.
• Undo steps back one move at a time. On a keyboard, press an arrow key to start on stone 1, use the arrows to walk and Backspace to step back.

The week

Monday and Tuesday are Easy 6x6 fields with no hedges. Wednesday and Thursday are Medium 7x7 fields with a few hedges. Friday and Saturday are Hard 7x7 fields with stiles and oaks, and Sunday is a Ramble: an 8x8 field with hedges, stiles and oaks. What really sets the level is the ideas a field needs, as worked out by our solver (see below).

Scoring

You start on 1,000 points and lose one point for every second on the clock (three quarters of a point on a Sunday Ramble) and 50 for each hint. Any finished walk scores at least 100, and giving up scores 0 and shows you the walk. The clock starts when you press Start and runs on our server, so a refresh does not reset it.

Techniques, from easy to hard

1. Count the ways in and out

Every square the walk has not reached yet needs a way in and a way out (the last stone needs only a way in). A corner square has just two sides open, so the walk must use both of them. Squares squeezed against a hedge, the edge or the walk so far often have only two ways left, and that tells you exactly how the walk passes them.

2. Stiles and oaks

A stile fixes a straight line through its square, so if you know one side, you know the other. An oak is the opposite: if the walk comes in from the left, it must leave by the top or the bottom. Both are often the key to a Hard field.

3. No loops, no stones out of turn

Joining two pieces of walk you have already worked out must never close a loop, never bring stones together out of order (stone 3 can only lead to stone 2 or 4), and never reach the last stone before every square is walked. That rules out many tempting links.

4. Bottlenecks

Now and then part of the field can only be reached through one gap, so the walk has to use that gap. It does not come up often, but it is worth a glance at a hedged corner.

5. What if?

On harder days, try a link in your head and follow the forced steps. If they lead to a square with no way out, a loop or a stone out of turn, the link is wrong. Our solver only ever tries one link at a time and never looks more than about 20 steps ahead; Easy fields never need it, Medium at most once.

Hints

Stuck? A hint lights up the next square of the walk and says which idea finds it, then offers to fill it in for you. If your walk has already gone wrong, the hint shows where first, so a hint is never wasted on a walk that cannot be finished.

Endless mode

Want more than one a day? The loop button at the top opens endless mode: hundreds more fields at Easy, Medium, Hard and Ramble, played at your own pace with unlimited hints. Your progress, best and average times stay on your device. The last seven daily fields can also be replayed from the calendar.

Every finished field, with its walk, is in the Bimble answers archive. For the other daily games, see the dailies page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Bimble ever need guessing?

No. Every field has exactly one walk, proved by a computer, and our solver reaches it using only the kinds of ideas described above.

What are stiles and oaks in Bimble?

Extra clues on harder days. The walk crosses a stile in a straight line, and it turns as it passes an oak.

How is Bimble scored?

You start on 1,000 points and lose a point a second (three quarters of a point on Sundays) and 50 per hint. Any finish scores at least 100; giving up scores 0.

Is Bimble free?

Yes. Bimble is free to play in any web browser, on a phone or a computer. There is nothing to install and no account to make.

What time does the new Bimble field come out?

At midnight UK time (GMT in winter, BST in summer). Everyone gets the same field on the same day. If you have the old puzzle open at midnight, you have 30 minutes to finish it and still have it count.

Can I play more than one Bimble a day?

Yes. Endless mode has hundreds of extra fields at four levels, and the last seven daily fields can be replayed from the calendar. Neither affects your daily score or streak.

Where can I see yesterday's Bimble walk?

The Bimble answers archive shows every finished field with its walk. Today's field never appears there until the day is over.