Play Today's Hashi Daily Puzzle

How to Play Hashi

Modes: Easy · Medium · Hard · Daily

Hashi is played on a grid of numbered islands. Connect them with bridges drawn horizontally or vertically between islands in the same row or column.

Each island’s number tells you exactly how many bridges must touch it. A pair of islands can be linked by one or two bridges, but never more.

Tap an island, then tap another island in the same row or column to cycle its bridge count: none, one, then two.

Bridges must never cross, and the finished network must be connected — every island reachable from every other.

Rules

Bridges run only horizontally or vertically between two adjacent islands in a line.

Each island’s number equals the total bridges attached to it.

At most two bridges may connect the same pair of islands.

No bridge may cross another, and all islands must be connected.

Scoring

History & Origins of Hashi

Hashi, formally Hashiwokakero and usually translated as Bridges, is a network-construction puzzle that appeared in Nikoli’s magazine at the start of the 1990s. Where most logic puzzles ask you to fill a grid, Hashi asks you to build a map: islands sit on the board and your job is to connect them with bridges that obey strict rules.

Each island carries a number that is really a degree count, saying exactly how many bridges must touch it, counting a double bridge twice. Bridges may run only horizontally or vertically between two islands in the same row or column, no bridge may cross another, and no pair of islands may ever share more than two lines.

The finishing rule is the quietest and the easiest to miss: the whole network must be connected, so every island has to stay reachable from every other one through the bridges you drew. ThinkyPlay grows the map by difficulty, from compact 5x5 grids with a handful of islands up to 9x9 boards crowded with a dozen.

Because everything is drawn rather than filled in, Hashi attracts solvers who think in shapes and routes rather than digits. Its island numbers and connecting lines are really graph theory in disguise, which is one reason the puzzle remains a staple of Nikoli-style collections decades after its first appearance in print.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Running a bridge straight through an island that sits between your two targets, when every bridge must stop at the first island it meets.
• Adding a third parallel bridge between the same two islands, even though two lines are the absolute limit for any pair.
• Leaving two separate clusters that each satisfy their own numbers, forgetting that the final rule demands one single connected network.
• Bolting bridges onto an island until it carries more than its number, while ignoring the red overload warning that appears on the island.
• Drawing a long bridge across the path of another line and hoping the crossing resolves itself later, when crossings are never allowed.

Tips & Strategy

Start with islands marked 8 — they must use double bridges on all four sides.

An island of 1 with only one possible neighbour is forced.

Never bridge two islands that already have another island between them.

Watch the edge of the grid: islands there have fewer neighbours, which pins their bridges down quickly.

Use the Hint button when stuck; it places one correct bridge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hashi free to play?

Yes — Hashi on ThinkyPlay is completely free, with no download and no sign-up.

How many bridges can join two islands?

At most two. Clicking the same pair again adds the second bridge, and once more removes them.

Can bridges cross?

No — a valid solution never has crossing bridges, and the game highlights any crossing you create in red.

What does the island number mean?

The number on an island is the total number of bridges that must connect to it, counting double bridges twice.

Why do my islands match their numbers but the puzzle still will not finish?

Matching every island’s number is only half the job. The other rule is connectivity: all islands must sit in one network, so any split-off group of islands leaves the puzzle incomplete.

When does an island or bridge turn red in Hashi?

An island turns red once the bridges attached to it outnumber its value, and any crossing bridges are drawn in red too, so a red line usually signals a crossing you need to reroute.

How do the difficulty levels change the map?

Boards grow from 5x5 on Easy to 7x7 on Medium and 9x9 on Hard, and each step adds more islands, longer spans between them, and more chances for bridges to get in each other’s way.