How to Play Hashi (Bridges)

🌉What is Hashi?

Hashi — short for Hashiwokakero, "build bridges" — scatters numbered islands across a grid. Connect them with bridges until every island's number is satisfied and the whole map is one connected network. It looks like a city-building toy and solves like pure logic: every DailyGrid Hashi has exactly one solution.

📜The rules

1. Bridges run horizontally or vertically between neighboring islands — never diagonally, and never jumping over another island.
2. Between any two islands there can be zero, one, or two bridges — never three or more.
3. Bridges may not cross each other.
4. The number on each island equals the total number of bridges touching it.
5. When you're done, all islands must form one single connected network — no separate islands groups, even if all the numbers work.
6. On DailyGrid: drag (or tap) between two islands to add a bridge; repeat for a double bridge; tap again to remove.

🎯Strategy

Getting started — constrained islands first

• 1s: a 1-island gets exactly one single bridge to one neighbor. If it has only one possible neighbor direction, that bridge is forced — and once placed, no other bridge may cross it or connect to that island.
• Corner islands: a corner island has only two directions available. A corner 3 needs a double + a single; a corner 4 needs doubles both ways.
• Big numbers: a 7 needs doubles in three directions and a single in the fourth; an 8 is doubles in all four. Place at least one bridge in every direction of a 7 or 8 immediately — none of its directions can be empty.
• Edge 5s and 6s on a border (three directions) are similarly forced into near-maximum builds.

Level up

• Isolation check — the golden rule: never complete a small group of islands that has no bridge to the rest of the map. If adding a bridge would satisfy two islands and seal them off from everyone else, that bridge is forbidden (or must stay single so a second connection can still form).
• Count what's left. An island needing 1 more bridge with only one open direction is forced. Recompute "still needed" after every placement.
• Use crossings as walls. A placed bridge blocks the perpendicular path between two other islands — after each bridge, re-ask which pairs just lost their route.
• Leave options for low islands: a 2 with three neighbors will use exactly two single bridges (or one double); don't let neighbors greedily double into it and blow its budget.

Pro tips

• If an island needs bridges and every direction but one is blocked or maxed, the remaining direction takes the rest — even a double.
• Endgame: when all numbers are satisfied but you have two networks, one bridge somewhere is wrong — look for a double that should be a single plus a reroute.

⚠️Common mistakes

• Satisfying all numbers but finishing with two disconnected networks — rule 5 is a real rule, check it before celebrating.
• Building a bridge that crosses where another pair needed to connect, stranding a low-number island.
• Forgetting the max: a third bridge between the same pair is never the answer; reroute instead.

❓FAQ

What are the rules of Hashi?

Connect islands with horizontal/vertical bridges, max two between any pair, no crossings. Each island's bridge total equals its number, and the result must be one connected network.

How do you start a Hashi puzzle?

With the most constrained islands: 1s, corners, and 7s/8s have forced or near-forced bridges. See the strategy section.

Is the DailyGrid Hashi free?

Yes — a new Hashi every day at midnight ET, no account needed — the daily puzzles are free. Always. One of ten daily puzzles on DailyGrid.

Where can I learn the other games?

See all ten DailyGrid guides.