Stars

How it works

What you get from it

You solve it by working out where a star can’t be, until what’s left must be true. Each × you place makes the next step easier to see.

The rules fit in one sentence, yet the colours make every puzzle look and feel different.

It’s also a good puzzle for holding a few facts at once: this row, that colour, and the squares a star already rules out.

Rules

The grid is split into colours, as many as it has rows. Place one star in every row, every column and every colour. Stars never touch, not even diagonally. There is exactly one way to place them.

Hard is 10×10 and takes two stars in every row, every column and every colour, still never touching. The line under the board says so the whole time.

How to play in Rather

Tap a square once for a star. Tap twice to mark × for “no star here”, and again to clear it. The line under the board counts the stars you have placed.

There are no notes: × is the mark that doesn’t commit you. Undo steps back through every tap.

Where to start

Look for a colour that sits in a single row. Its star must be in that row, so the rest of the row stays empty. The same works for columns.

Each star you place rules out its eight neighbours and the rest of its row, column and colour. Small colours are a good place to look: a colour of two or three squares has few choices, and often one of them would touch or block another colour.

Later, look for two colours that lie entirely inside the same two rows. They take both rows’ stars, so every other square in those rows is empty.

A square that touches every square of a small colour can’t hold a star: wherever that colour’s star goes, it would touch it. Cross it out.

When you’re stuck

Tap Hint. It clears wrong marks first, then takes the next step you could work out from your stars and × marks, and says why: “This colour has one place left for its star.”

Errors underlines stars that are off and × marks on a star’s square. If two stars touch or share a line (three on hard), it says so.

A hint never crosses out a square a star already rules out, so your board stays easy to read.

Sizes

• Easy 7×7 Seven stars, seven colours.
• Medium 9×9 Nine stars, nine colours.
• Hard 10×10 Two stars per row, column and colour: 20 in all.

Questions

Do my × marks count?

No. They are only for you. The puzzle is solved when the stars are right.

Can stars touch at a corner?

No. Stars never touch, not even diagonally.

Do the colours give anything away?

No. They are numbered in reading order, so a colour never hints where its star is.