Tents solving techniques
Every Tents puzzle on this site can be solved with the techniques below, without guessing. They run from the easiest to the hardest, and a puzzle's level is set by the hardest one it needs. The hint button in the game shows these same steps.
No tree, no tent
Used in: Easy, Medium, Hard
A tent always stands right beside its own tree, above, below, left or right. A cell with no tree on any of those four sides can never hold a tent, so it is grass.
Example
Tents never touch
Used in: Easy, Medium, Hard
Tents never touch, not even at a corner. Once a tent is placed, all the cells around it are grass.
Example
Count reached
Used in: Easy, Medium, Hard
When a row or a column already has as many tents as its number, every other cell in it is grass.
Example
Last spots
Used in: Easy, Medium, Hard
When a row or a column has just as many empty cells left as tents it still needs, every one of those cells gets a tent.
Example
Lonely tree
Used in: Easy, Medium, Hard
If a tree has no tent yet and only one empty cell is left beside it, its tent goes there.
Example
Tree and tent pairs
Used in: Medium, Hard
Every tree has its own tent and every tent belongs to one tree, so keep track of which tent belongs to which tree. A cell whose trees all have their tents somewhere else is grass. A tree whose other neighbours hold the tents of other trees gets its tent in the one spot left.
Example
Shared corner
Used in: Medium, Hard
A tree's tent may still have two or three places to go. If all of them touch the same cell, that cell can't hold a tent, wherever the tree's tent ends up.
Example
Every layout
Used in: Hard
Fit the missing tents of a row or a column into its empty cells in every possible way, never two side by side. A cell that holds a tent in every way gets one, and a cell that never does is grass.
Example
Shadow
Used in: Hard
Do the same, but look at the row or column beside it. A cell there that touches a tent in every possible way is grass.
Example