Heyawake (Japanese for 'divided rooms') is a logic puzzle published by Nikoli. A rectangular grid is divided into rooms, some containing a number. You shade cells so that no two shaded cells touch orthogonally, all unshaded cells form one connected group, numbered rooms contain exactly that many shaded cells, and no horizontal or vertical line of unshaded cells crosses three or more room boundaries.

How do you solve a Heyawake puzzle?

Start with rooms containing 0 — they hold no shaded cells. Then look for rooms where the number equals half the room's area, forcing a checkerboard pattern. Apply the three-room rule: if a line of white cells would pass through three rooms, at least one cell must be shaded to block it. Use the adjacency constraint to propagate deductions outward.

What grid sizes are available?

Three sizes: 7×7 for quick puzzles, 10×10 for a balanced challenge, and 14×14 for experienced solvers wanting longer sessions.

What difficulty levels are there?

Three levels: Easy (more numbered rooms, simpler layouts), Medium (fewer clues, tighter room interactions), and Hard (minimal clues requiring deep logical reasoning). All puzzles have a unique solution solvable with logic alone.

What is the three-room rule in Heyawake?

A contiguous horizontal or vertical line of unshaded (white) cells may not pass through three or more room boundaries. In other words, a straight run of white cells can span at most two rooms. This rule prevents trivially large white corridors and is a major source of deductions.

Play Heyawake Online

Shade cells inside rectangular rooms. No two shaded cells may touch, all white cells must stay connected, and no straight white line may cross three or more room boundaries!

Shaded

Rooms

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Tap a cell to shade it — tap again to unshade

Heyawake logic puzzle — shade cells following region and connectivity rules

What Is Heyawake?

Heyawake (へやわけ, meaning “divided rooms”) is a binary-determination logic puzzle first published by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli in 1992. It is one of Nikoli’s “shading” puzzle types, alongside classics like Nurikabe and Hitori.

The puzzle is played on a rectangular grid that has been partitioned into rectangular rooms (also called “regions” or “blocks”). Some rooms contain a number that tells you exactly how many cells in that room must be shaded. Rooms without a number can contain any number of shaded cells (including zero). Your objective is to decide, for every cell, whether it is shaded (black) or unshaded (white) while satisfying four constraints.

Rules of Heyawake

Numbered rooms: If a room contains a number, exactly that many cells in the room must be shaded. Rooms without a number may contain any count of shaded cells (including zero).
No adjacent shading: No two shaded cells may be orthogonally adjacent (horizontally or vertically). Diagonal adjacency is allowed.
Connected white cells: All unshaded (white) cells must form a single orthogonally connected group. You should be able to travel from any white cell to any other white cell through horizontal and vertical steps.
Three-room rule: A contiguous horizontal or vertical line of white cells may not pass through three or more room boundaries. Equivalently, a straight run of white cells can span at most two rooms.

How to Solve Heyawake — Strategy Tips

1. Start With Zero Rooms

A room labelled 0 contains no shaded cells — every cell in it is white. Mark the entire room as white immediately. This is the easiest deduction and gives you a safe starting point.

2. Full Rooms (“Checkerboard”)

If a room’s number equals the maximum that can be placed without adjacent shading (roughly half its cells), you can often determine the exact pattern. For instance, a 2×1 room labelled 1 has only one possible shaded cell position if constrained by neighbours. A 1×3 room labelled 1 must have the shaded cell in the middle (otherwise two shaded cells in adjacent rooms might touch).

3. Apply the Three-Room Rule

Scan rows and columns for long white corridors. If a straight run of white cells would span three rooms, at least one cell on that line must be shaded. This frequently forces cells in the middle room of such a corridor.

4. No-Adjacency Propagation

Once you shade a cell, all four of its orthogonal neighbours must be white. This can trigger further deductions: if forcing a neighbour to be white would violate connectivity or a room count, the original shading is impossible.

5. Connectivity Checking

Periodically check that white cells remain one connected group. If shading a cell would split the white region into two or more disconnected components, that cell cannot be shaded. Corners and narrow corridors are the most common places where this occurs.

6. Room-Count Elimination

For each numbered room, count how many cells are already shaded and how many remain unshaded. If the room’s quota is met, all remaining cells must be white. If only one cell remains to reach the quota and only one candidate position exists, shade that cell.

Grid Sizes & Difficulty Levels

7×7 — Easy: A compact grid with many numbered rooms. Great for learning the rules. Typical solve time is 2–5 minutes.
7×7 — Medium/Hard: Same grid size but fewer numbered rooms, requiring longer deduction chains and more reliance on the three-room rule.
10×10: The classic Heyawake experience. Enough room for complex three-room-rule interactions and tricky connectivity requirements.
14×14: Large grids for experienced solvers. Many rooms, longer white corridors, and intricate constraint chains.

Heyawake vs Other Logic Puzzles

vs Nurikabe: Both involve shading cells with a connectivity constraint. Nurikabe requires a connected sea (shaded region) with island size clues, while Heyawake requires connected white cells with room-number clues and no-adjacency among shaded cells.
vs Hitori: Both shade cells so that white cells stay connected and no two shaded cells share an edge. Hitori eliminates duplicates in rows/columns while Heyawake uses room counts and the three-room rule.
vs Tapa: Tapa shades cells to form a connected wall with clue numbers describing runs around a cell. Heyawake forbids adjacent shading and uses rectangular rooms instead.
vs LITS: LITS shades tetromino-shaped groups inside regions. Heyawake shades individual non-touching cells and has no shape constraint. The room-partition idea is shared, but the mechanics differ greatly.
vs Light Up (Akari): Both use constraints that propagate along rows and columns (Akari’s light beams, Heyawake’s three-room rule). Akari places bulbs; Heyawake shades cells.

Frequently Asked Questions

Heyawake is a Nikoli logic puzzle played on a grid divided into rectangular rooms. Some rooms contain a number indicating how many cells must be shaded. No two shaded cells touch, all white cells stay connected, and no straight white line crosses three or more room boundaries.

Start with rooms labelled 0 (all white). Look for rooms where the count forces a specific pattern. Apply the three-room rule to long corridors, propagate no-adjacency constraints after shading, and verify white connectivity throughout.

Three sizes: 7×7 for quick games, 10×10 for the classic experience, and 14×14 for a bigger challenge.

Easy (many numbered rooms, simpler room layouts), Medium (fewer clues, tighter interactions), and Hard (minimal numbered rooms requiring deep reasoning). All puzzles have a unique solution.

A horizontal or vertical line of consecutive white cells cannot pass through three or more room boundaries. This means a straight run of white cells can span at most two rooms. The rule prevents long featureless corridors and is a key source of deductions.

More Puzzle & Strategy Games

If you enjoy Heyawake, try these other free games on our site:

Nurikabe

Shade cells to form a connected sea around numbered islands.

LITS

Place L, I, T & S tetrominoes in regions — all shaded cells must connect.