Guides · Pipes

How to play Pipes.

Pipes is the rotate-the-pieces puzzle: every piece is a bit of plumbing turned the wrong way, and you spin them until the water from the source flows into all of them. Start at the source and work outward.

About 3 minutes · No experience needed

The board.

A 4 by 4 grid of pipe pieces: straights, corners, T-junctions and dead ends. One piece is the source, marked with a dot. Water that reaches a piece is drawn bright; dry pipe is drawn dark.

A 4 by 4 Pipes board in Pocketful with every piece dark and the source marked in the lower middle — Starter level 1. The source sits below the middle; nothing is connected yet.

The rule.

Spin the pieces so the water reaches every piece, in one connected network, with no open end pointing at a wall or at empty space.

Tap a piece to turn it a quarter turn clockwise. Every piece on the board is part of the finished network, so nothing is a red herring.

Start at the source.

The source is the only piece you know is wet. Turn it so its openings point at neighbours that can accept water, then follow the water: each newly wet piece tells you which way the next one has to face.

The Pipes board with the source piece ringed

The Pipes board with the source turned and its three neighbours outlined

Common questions.

Can a piece be left dry?

No. Every piece on the board belongs to the network. If one stays dark at the end, something near it is still turned wrong.

What counts as a leak?

An opening that points at the board's edge or at a neighbour with no opening to meet it. The board is finished only when every opening is met by another.