Cozy Puzzle
Reindeer Route
A one line path puzzle on Christmas Eve: draw a single route that passes over every rooftop exactly once and meets the houses in order.
What you do
A cozy Christmas path puzzle set over a snowy village at night. Figgy, a young reindeer pulling a little sleigh, has to fly over every rooftop in town exactly once and meet the numbered houses in order before landing on the last one. It is pure planning: one continuous route, no turns wasted and no square left out. Presents pop onto each house you reach in order, villagers wave from the snow, and the whole town lights up when the route is complete. There are 36 routes on the ladder, from 4x4 teaching towns to 8x8 big towns, and Tonight’s route is a new town every day, picked by the date from a pool of 365. Every puzzle has exactly one solution.
How to play
- Press Start on the title card. Route 1 teaches the rules, each route you deliver opens the next, and Tonight’s route is open from the start.
- Figgy starts on house 1. Fly the sleigh one square at a time, up, down, left or right, never onto a rooftop the route has already passed over and never across a pine row.
- The route must pass over every square in town exactly once, meet the houses in number order and end on the highest number. The next house to reach glows, and a present pops onto each house met in order.
- A house reached too soon shows a "not yet" tag. Cut the route back before it and try another way.
- Each route earns bells: three without hints, one fewer for each hint, and always at least one.
Controls
- Touch or mouse: drag from Figgy at the end of the route to extend it, drag back over the route to rewind it, and tap any square on the route to cut it back there. Tapping a square in a straight, open line from Figgy flies there.
- Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD fly one square (the arrow back toward the last square steps back), Backspace steps back, U or Z undoes the last change, R clears the route, H asks for a hint and M opens the route map. Escape closes the map.
- Buttons: Undo takes back the last change, Clear sends Figgy back to house 1 and Hint makes the next square glow. The route name in the scoreboard opens the map.
- Toolbar: pause, help, restart (clears the route on screen; bells, best times and other routes stay), optional sound and fullscreen.
Tips worth knowing
- Start with the corners and with squares boxed in by pines. A square with only two open neighbors must be passed through using both of them, which often settles a whole stretch of the route.
- Flying straight to the next house is rarely right. From route 4 on, every puzzle is checked so that always taking the shortest way to the next house leaves rooftops behind.
- Undo and Clear are free and unlimited, so try an idea and take it back.
Accessibility
- Everything can be played with a keyboard: arrow keys or WASD fly, and every button is reachable with Tab.
- Nothing counts down. Undo and Clear are free and unlimited.
- House numbers are large type on wreaths; houses met in order also get a present and houses reached too soon get a "not yet" tag, so nothing relies on color alone.
- Deliveries, "not yet" houses and the finish are announced to screen readers, and the town has a spoken summary of the rooftops covered and the next house.
- Reduced motion stops the falling snow and Figgy’s gliding and bobbing; sparkles and presents still show, with smaller bursts that barely move. Sound is optional and never needed to play.
Questions
Does every route have exactly one answer?
Yes. Every puzzle was made from a seed and checked by a solver that searches all possible routes: exactly one covers every square, meets the houses in order and ends on the last house. Every town was then checked again by a second, separate search.
How do hints work?
Hint makes the next square of the solution glow, and if the route has gone astray it is cut back to where it was still right first. Each hint costs a bell, down to one bell, and the count stays with that route through undo, clear, restart and reload until you deliver it.
Is there a timer?
Nothing on screen counts down. The game quietly keeps how long each route took and shows it, with your best time, on the results card.
What does Reindeer Route save?
On this device: which ladder routes are open, the most bells and fastest time on each route, your result on Tonight’s route, and every route you have started but not delivered, square by square, with its hints and time so far. Tonight’s route in progress is cleared when the date changes. If the browser blocks saving, you can still play, and the game says your progress lasts only until you leave the page.
