How to play Hitori
Every cell already has a number. Your job is to shade some of them so each row and column has no repeats, while keeping the white cells joined together.
The rules
- Shade cells so that no number appears twice among the white (unshaded) cells of any row or column.
- Shaded cells may never touch side by side (touching at a corner is fine).
- All the white cells must stay connected in one group, joined side by side.
- Only shade a cell to remove a repeat: a number that appears once in its row and column always stays white.
Watch an example
Here is a small Hitori puzzle being solved one step at a time. Press Play, or use Back and Next to go at your own pace.
Press Play to start.
Playing on LogicBright
Tap a cell to shade it. Switch to “Keep white” to mark cells you know stay white with a circle.
Next to a shaded cell, every neighbor must be white: circle them.
If a white circled number repeats elsewhere in its row or column, the other one must be shaded.
Tips
- Start with numbers that appear only once in their row and column: circle them.
- In a row reading 4 2 4, the middle 2 stays white: if it were shaded, both 4s next to it would have to stay white, and that is a repeat.
- Watch the edges: shading must never cut the white cells into two groups.