Winding Path

Winding Path requires a single stroke. A square grid, two red dots placed on it, dark blocks that block part of it, and a line to draw that starts at one point, arrives at the other, and passes through every free cell once and only once. The victory condition is as blunt as the rule: all cells filled, it's a win; two cells left empty, it's a loss. The board is dated with a day number and topped by a row of five rabbit heads, the site's emblem, some of which are blackened. Beneath the grid, five round buttons: reset, undo, redo, a hint in the shape of a light bulb and a heart.

1. Start from one of the two dots and draw the line cell by cell, going around the blocks that obstruct the grid.
2. Go through every free cell exactly once, never crossing your own trace.
3. Arrive at the second dot after having filled the whole grid: that's the only way to win.

The single-stroke path that fills the whole grid is a classic of the genre, and Winding Path serves it in its most stripped-down form: a single question, is the grid full. This sparsity changes the rhythm; you play more against geometry than against the clock, and the main task is to spot the cells that have only one possible entry and exit, then let those certainties propagate. The blocks that obstruct the grid are what make the exercise workable: they create the bottlenecks from which to start. The separation between undo and redo, rare in this kind of game, encourages exploring a branch rather than reasoning in the abstract.

Everything is decided at the end, and the site states it without détour: a fully filled grid is a victory, two cells left empty and it is not. There is no half-success. While drawing, the tools do the work: undo and redo are two separate buttons, which lets you backtrack a branch and then replay it without starting over, and a light bulb serves as a hint.

Grille du jour

One grid per day, numbered at the top of the board, with its blocks and its two dots placed differently.

Grilles passées

The site indicates that previous days are available in the menu, and a link to the previous day is placed just above the board.

• The site's advice is the right starting point: begin with the narrow places. A cell stuck in a corner or pressed against a block usually admits only one passage, and these forced passages should be placed before everything else.
• The two dots are interchangeable. If the path gets blocked starting from one, retracing it from the other completely changes how the grid reads.
• With undo and redo separate, it's worth attempting a doubtful branch: backtrack to it with the undo button and replay it if it proves good, without losing the work done beforehand.