Slitherlink (PuzzleMadness)

About Slitherlink (PuzzleMadness)

Slitherlink is a loop puzzle. Some squares in the grid hold a number from 0 to 3, and you draw one continuous loop along the edges between dots so that each number has exactly that many of its four sides on the loop. The loop never crosses or touches itself, and there is only one.

The daily page opens today's puzzle on its own, and its title carries the date (on 3 October 2026 it read "Daily Medium Slitherlink Puzzle for Saturday 3rd October 2026"). There is a separate dated puzzle for each size: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large and Mixed. Past days stay in the archive, so a missed puzzle can be played later, and there is a print version and an image download of the grid. PuzzleMadness does not publish solutions: the site tells you when you have finished a grid correctly or made a mistake. Each completed puzzle adds to your total on the Slitherlink monthly and all-time leaderboards, where only your best score on any one puzzle counts.

Zeros are the first move: none of their sides can be used, so cross them all out. A 3 next to a 0 is then forced, and two 3s side by side always share their middle edge and both outer edges in one of two ways. As the loop grows, avoid closing a small loop early, since only one loop is allowed.

PuzzleMadness is a British puzzle site with dozens of daily puzzle types in the browser, from many sudoku variants to logic grids such as Nurikabe, Hashi and Slitherlink. It is free to play and carries ads. A free account keeps track of the puzzles you have finished and puts your name on the leaderboards, and the badges next to usernames mark how many puzzles a player has completed.

How to play Slitherlink (PuzzleMadness)

1. Open the day's Slitherlink page and choose Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large or Mixed.
2. Cross out every edge around a 0.
3. Draw edges forced by 3s and corners, and cross out edges that cannot be used.
4. Join everything into one closed loop that matches every number; the site confirms the solve.

Screenshots

Tips

• Two adjacent 3s: the edge between them and the two outer parallel edges are always on the loop.
• A 3 in a corner uses both outer corner edges.
• Every dot has either two loop edges or none; use that to extend lines.

Questions