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Hunt: how to solve it with logic

Hunt is a logic puzzle on a grid divided into coloured zones. A bug hides in every zone, and you find them all by reasoning, not guessing. You have three lives, and a wrong guess costs one, so the skill is learning to see which squares are certain. This guide explains the rules and then the techniques, in the order you will use them.

The rules

• There is exactly one bug in each colour zone.
• There is exactly one bug in each row and each column, so the grid is always as many zones as it is wide.
• No two bugs may touch, including diagonally.

Use the grey cross to mark squares you have ruled out. Crosses are only your own notes and never count against you. Only a guess at a square costs a life if you are wrong.

Technique 1: cross out what a bug touches

As soon as you find a bug, cross out the eight squares around it, and the rest of its row, column and zone. This is the easy part, and it does most of the early work. On a fresh board it is also how you spot the first forced squares.

Technique 2: the smallest zone first

Look for a zone with only one or two squares left. If a zone has a single open square, the bug is there. If it has two, anything that touches both squares is impossible: a square sitting next to both candidates can be crossed out.

Technique 3: zones confined to a line

If every open square of a zone lies in one row, that zone's bug must be in that row, so no other zone can have its bug in that row. Cross out every other open square on that row. The same applies to a column. This single idea solves a large share of medium boards.

Technique 4: counting rows and zones

Extend the same thought to groups. If two zones sit entirely inside the same two rows, those two rows are used up by those two zones, so no third zone can have a bug in either row. If three zones sit inside three rows, the same is true of three, and so on. When a group of zones fits exactly inside a group of rows or columns, everything else in those lines is out.

Technique 5: the two-by-two rule

Any 2×2 block can hold at most one bug, because bugs cannot touch. If a zone's candidates are all inside one 2×2 block, that is useful: whichever square holds the bug, it rules out the rest of the block for every other zone.

Technique 6: what if

When nothing else works, pick a square and imagine the bug is there. Follow the consequences: crossing out the row, column and neighbours, then looking for a zone left with no squares. If you find one, the bug cannot be in your chosen square, so cross it out. This is still logic, not guessing, because you never commit to the square unless you have proved it.

Using hints

Hint and reveal buttons exist for when you are stuck. A hint explains why a square is certain, which makes it a good way to learn a technique you did not know. Use reveals sparingly, and play the daily puzzle without them if you are chasing the lives on the Today boards.

If colours are hard to tell apart, turn on pattern marks in the options, which draw a pattern on each zone as well as its colour.