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Loop through every pearl
Solve it by drawing one closed loop that passes through every pearl on the board — empty dots are optional — with no branches or crossings.
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Tap or drag to draw
Tap between two dots to add or erase a segment, or drag dot-to-dot.
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Pearls set the shape
The loop runs straight through a white pearl, turning immediately on at least one side. At a black pearl it turns, then runs straight for two cells each way.
Play Masyu now
Solving tips
- Black pearls near a wall are gold: both legs must point away from the border, so a corner black pearl is fully forced.
- A white pearl on the border: the loop must run along the edge, straight through it.
- Two black pearls side by side must each run away from the other — neither can extend through its neighbour.
- Three or more white pearls in a row can’t be travelled along — the loop has to cross each one perpendicular to the line.
- Keep the loop open until every pearl is threaded — sealing it early with pearls left over is always wrong.
Where Masyu comes from
- Started as "Shinju no Kubikazari" (Pearl Necklace) in Nikoli #84 (1999) with only white pearls; black pearls arrived a few issues later and it became "White Pearls and Black Pearls".
- The name is a typo that stuck: Nikoli’s president Maki Kaji misread the kanji for shinju (pearl) as masyu — "evil influence" — and the office joke became the official name.
- Maki Kaji, who accidentally named it, was known worldwide as "the godfather of Sudoku".
- NP-complete on arbitrarily large grids, like its loop-drawing cousin Slitherlink.
- Completely language-free: no numbers, no letters — the same puzzle is playable anywhere on Earth unchanged.
Play it against a hundred other solvers
Puzzle Royale wraps Masyu and seven other logic puzzles in a battle
royale: a hundred solvers enter, four rounds, half the field goes out each time,
one champion. Or play it untimed in Practice with no stakes at all.
Try a Masyu puzzle
The other seven