How to solve Starpath

01 · Starpath

Look for forced tiles

In the finished trail, every tile except the two ends has exactly two neighbors in the path: the one before and the one after. So a tile with only two open neighbors, because it sits in a corner or against barriers, must connect to both. Draw those links first.

A tile with only one open neighbor must be an end of the trail. Since the trail starts on star 1, such a tile anywhere else is where the trail finishes, and the route has to arrive there last.

02 · Starpath

Read the barriers as walls

Barriers block the edge between two tiles, which often turns open space into a corridor. A corridor one tile wide has to be walked straight through, in one end and out the other, so treat it as a single long tile when you plan the route.

03 · Starpath

Plan the route between stars

The stars split the trail into legs: 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and so on. Each leg must cover all the tiles that no other leg can reach. If two consecutive stars are close together but there is a large area nearby, one of the legs has to detour through that area.

Avoid touching a later star early. The trail cannot pass over star 7 on the way from 3 to 4, so tiles next to later stars are often off-limits until their turn.

Color the board like a chessboard in your head. Each step moves to the other color, so two stars on the same color are an even number of steps apart, and stars on different colors an odd number. It is a quick way to see that a short leg has to wander.

04 · Starpath

Never strand a tile

The most common mistake is a trail that cuts off a pocket of tiles it can never come back to. Before committing a long line, check that every open area it leaves behind still has a way in and a way out. If part of the trail goes wrong, trim back to the last tile you were sure about rather than starting over.