Nurikabe (CoffeeFirst)

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Build the day's islands and keep one connected sea.

on coffeefirst.games

CoffeeFirst Nurikabe #253, 5x5: a grey grid with clue cells 4 and 10, a timer and Reset Grid, with 7x7 and 9x9 sizes above (ads at the edges)

CoffeeFirst's daily Nurikabe is the classic Japanese shading puzzle. Each number is an island of that many cells; everything else is sea, which must join up in one region and never form a 2x2 block.

About Nurikabe (CoffeeFirst)

Nurikabe is a Japanese logic puzzle, and CoffeeFirst.games publishes one numbered grid of it each day, the same for every player; number 251 fell on 2 October 2026. Each numbered cell is part of an island of exactly that many light cells, and each island holds exactly one number.

All the other cells are dark sea. The sea must form a single connected region, and it may never fill a 2x2 square anywhere. Islands may touch diagonally but not side by side. Together these rules give each grid a single solution, found by deduction rather than guessing.

You tap cells to add them to islands and mark sea, and the game has a short guide for newcomers. Solve times go on a leaderboard and earlier puzzles are in the archive. It suits players who already enjoy Star Battle or LITS and want another shading puzzle in the same family.

How to play Nurikabe (CoffeeFirst)

Open the day's Nurikabe and read the numbers in the grid.
Grow each numbered cell into an island of that many cells.
Mark every other cell as sea, keeping the sea in one connected region.
Make sure there is no 2x2 block of sea, then check your solution.

Screenshots

CoffeeFirst Nurikabe start page: Puzzle No. 253 for October 04, 2026, with a how-to-play example grid

Tips

Cells between two numbers that would join two islands must be sea.
A 1 is already a full island: mark all its neighbours as sea.
Look for sea cells that would be cut off; the island next to them must leave a channel.