Number Path Game: Connect to the Target Sum
A number path game blends the smooth feel of drawing a connected line with the logic of hitting an exact total. NumberFlow is a daily one.
Play today’s puzzleOverview
A number path game is built around one move: connect a path of adjacent cells. In NumberFlow you start on any cell and extend to a neighbour that shares an edge (up, down, left or right — diagonals do not connect), never crossing a cell you have already used. The path is one continuous line, like a connect-the-dots drawing.
What turns the drawing into a puzzle is the target. Each cell carries a digit, and your path wins only when those digits add up to exactly the target number — no more, no less — within the allowed path length. So you are not just connecting cells, you are searching for the one route whose total lands on the number.
Because the digits are all positive, the search has a satisfying shape: every step raises your running sum, so you are always steering toward the target and pruning any route that overshoots. NumberFlow guarantees each day has a single correct route, so it rewards deduction, not luck.
Strategy & tips
- Treat overshooting as information: if a promising route blows past the target, the real path must avoid one of those high cells.
- Long paths of small digits and short paths of big digits can hit the same target — count cells, not just values.
- Corners and edges have fewer neighbours, so they constrain the route more — they are often good places to anchor a deduction.
Worked example
A step-by-step solve showing how to find the one path that reaches the target. (This is a small teaching grid — the daily puzzle is larger and changes every day.)
Target 14. The numbers in the highlighted cells show the connect order. Connect an adjacent path totalling 14 in this 3×3 grid.
- Step 1. The corner 6 (bottom-left) is the largest digit; pairing it with the 5 (top-left) already gives 11, so two small cells can finish the job.
- Step 2. Start at the top-middle 2 and step left to the 5 (running sum 7).
- Step 3. From the 5, step down to the 1 below it (running sum 8).
- Step 4. From that 1, step down again into the 6 (running sum 14). The path 2, 5, 1, 6 connects and totals exactly 14. Solved.
FAQ
- Can the path go diagonally?
- No. In NumberFlow cells only connect along shared edges — up, down, left and right. That keeps the routes clean and the daily difficulty consistent.
- Can I reuse a cell?
- No. Each cell can appear once in the path, so the route never crosses itself — just like a single connect-the-dots line.
- How long can the path be?
- Each daily puzzle has a length range, and the solution always falls inside it. You will see your running cell count as you draw.
- Is there always exactly one answer?
- Yes. Every NumberFlow puzzle is verified to have a single solution path, so the game is pure logic with no ambiguity.
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