Puzzle #7
Aurora
7 × 7Intermediate8 colorsPublished October 8, 2026
Blue is the long color on this board. It starts at the top, turns into the top-left corner and runs down the whole left edge before crossing the bottom row. Two rounds of thinking ahead decide Blue's route, and once it is in place the rest of the board falls into forced moves.
New to these puzzles? Read how to play first. Connect each pair of dots with a path, fill every cell, and don't let paths cross. This board has exactly one solution.
Hints
Hint 1: where to look
Look at the top-left corner, at row 1, column 1.
Hint 2: the first idea
That corner has only two usable neighbors, so a path must pass straight through it, and Blue's top dot is one of them. Blue turns into the corner and heads down the left edge.
Hint 3: the key step
Keep Blue on the left edge all the way down. At row 3 turning right cuts Blue off from its partner, and at row 5 turning right cuts Purple off, so Blue reaches the bottom row and comes up into its dot at row 6, column 3.
Techniques used: Forced moves, Edges and corners, Bottlenecks.
Step-by-step walkthrough
Every step below follows from the rules alone, with no guessing. Try the puzzle first and use the walkthrough when you get stuck.
Step 1 of 5
The top-left corner has only two usable neighbors, so a path has to pass straight through it. Blue's top dot is one of them, so Blue steps left into the corner and runs two cells down the left edge.
Step 2 of 5
Now think ahead at row 3, column 1. If Blue turns right there, it is cut off from its partner, so it keeps going down the left edge for two more cells.
Step 3 of 5
Think ahead again at row 5, column 1. Turning right would cut Purple off from its partner, so Blue runs to the bottom-left corner and along row 7 into its dot at row 6, column 3. Purple then links its dots through row 5. With one open side at a time, Red rises from row 4, column 2 and runs right along row 3, Orange climbs to the top row and heads right, and Green moves two cells right along row 2.
Step 4 of 5
The top and middle close up. Orange runs to the top-right corner and down into its dot at row 3, column 7, and Green drops two cells down column 6 to sit beside its dot at row 4, column 7. Red's path now touches its dot at row 3, column 5 and connects. Brown steps left into row 4, column 4 to join its lower dot, and Gray links its dots through row 6.
Step 5 of 5
Only five cells in the bottom-right are left. Pink runs from its dot at row 5, column 5 right to the edge, down to the bottom-right corner and left into its lower dot. Green's two ends now touch and connect, which completes the board.