How to play 8flowy

8flowy is a Flow-style pipe puzzle. If you can drag a finger, you can play. The rules fit in three lines — mastering them is where the fun lives.

The three rules

Connect the pairs. Every color appears as exactly two dots. Draw one pipe joining each pair.
Pipes never cross. No two pipes may share a square. Drawing across an existing pipe cuts it at the crossing point.
Fill every square. A finished board has no empty cells — the pipes tile the whole grid.

The third rule is the one newcomers miss. Connecting all the pairs is not enough: if even one square is left uncovered, the board isn't solved. In practice this rule is your best friend — it tells you which "obvious" short route is actually wrong.

A fresh 5x5 flow board with five pairs of colored dots — A fresh board: five pairs of colored dots on a 5×5 grid. 25 squares, five pipes, one correct network.

The controls

1 Press a dot and drag. The pipe follows your finger square by square. Reach the matching dot and the pair locks in with a satisfying pop.

2 Drag backwards to rewind. Retracing your pipe pulls it back. You can also press anywhere on a pipe to continue from that point — the part beyond it is discarded.

3 Draw through a wrong pipe to cut it. Pipes can't coexist on one square, so the newer pipe wins and the older one is trimmed back to the crossing point. Cutting is a tool, not a penalty.

4 Undo and clear. The undo button rewinds your last gesture; the eraser clears the whole board. Neither is ever needed — but both are one tap away.

The same board mid-solve with three pipes drawn — Mid-solve: three pairs connected, and the drawn pipes tint the squares they cover. The empty squares still need pipe.

Your first strategies

Start in the corners. A corner square has only two neighbours, so whatever pipe covers it has almost no choice. Corners and edges are where the board is forced — solve them first.
Hug the walls. When a dot sits near the border, its pipe usually runs along the border. Pipes that cut across open space early tend to strand squares behind them.
Never strand a square. Before you commit a pipe, glance at the squares it walls off: can some pipe still reach them? If a pocket of empty squares has no way in, your route is wrong now, not later.
Long before short. Two dots sitting next to each other almost never connect directly — the board needs their pipe to soak up empty squares somewhere. Expect detours.

Hints, timing and stars

Stuck? The hint button reveals one full correct pipe (clearing your wrong version of it) at the cost of ten seconds on the clock. The timer runs quietly at the top — you can hide it in settings everywhere except the daily puzzle, which is a race by design. Journey levels award up to three stars for quick solves.

Where to go next

Play a free board, start the Journey, or read the beginner's guide for a deeper walkthrough of the habits above. When the basics feel automatic, the techniques guide covers the deductions that crack hard boards.