Tents & Trees › Guide
Tents & Trees Strategy: Worked Deductions & 6×6 Solve
To solve Tents & Trees without guessing, first mark grass on every cell that touches no tree and on every 0 line, then place a tent wherever a tree has only one free side, eliminate cells that touch all of a tree's options, and use row and column counts to force tents into isolated cells.
Every Tents board on Solvedle has one solution that can be reached by logic alone. The examples below were found by a step-by-step solver on the 270 released practice boards: each one is the first point where that technique is needed, and every tent and grass mark shown was checked against the board's unique solution. These four techniques, together with full lines and finished trees, solve 252 of the 270 boards from start to finish.
How to read the boards
Numbers above the grid are column counts and numbers on the left are row counts. Rows are R1–R6 from the top and columns C1–C6 from the left. Green triangles are trees, orange triangles are tents, small dots are grass, and outlined cells are the ones a deduction uses.
Four checkpoints from Solvedle practice boards
1. Zero lines clear at once (6×6 Medium #26)
Row 4 has a clue of 0, so its 5 open cells (R4C1, R4C2, R4C3, R4C5, R4C6) can never hold a tent: mark them all as grass.
Show the board after this step
2. A tree with one free side (6×6 Hard #19)
The tree at R6C5 has no tent yet, and every other side is already grass, another tree or the edge of the board. Its tent must go at R6C6, which also turns 1 surrounding cell to grass.
Show the board after this step
3. Tree-shadow elimination (6×6 Hard #18)
The tree at R3C6 must use one of R4C6, R3C5. R4C5 touches all of those options, so whichever one gets the tent, that cell would touch it: mark grass.
Show the board after this step
4. Line capacity forces a lone cell (6×6 Hard #15)
Row 2 needs 2 more tents. Its open cells form runs of 1, 2; a run of two adjacent cells holds at most one tent, so the runs only just fit the count and each single-cell run must be a tent (R2C2).
Show the board after this step
Complete 6×6 solve: 6×6 Hard #7
This board needs 6 different techniques in 13 steps. Try it first, then compare your order of moves with the one below.
8 cells share no edge with any tree (R1C1, R1C6, R2C2, R3C3, R4C2, R5C3, R6C2, R6C3), so they are grass from the start.
Board after step 1
Row 2 has a clue of 0, so its 4 open cells (R2C1, R2C3, R2C4, R2C6) can never hold a tent: mark them all as grass.
Board after step 2
Column 1 still needs 2 tents and has exactly 2 open cells left (R4C1, R6C1), so each one is a tent and their neighbours become grass.
Board after step 3
Row 4 already has its one tent, so its 2 open cells (R4C3, R4C5) become grass.
Board after step 4
Column 2 still needs 1 tent and has only one open cell left, R1C2, so the tent goes there and its eight neighbours become grass.
Board after step 5
Every tree next to R1C4 already has its tent, so that cell has no tree left to pair with and must be grass.
Board after step 6
Row 1 still needs 1 tent and has only one open cell left, R1C5, so the tent goes there and its eight neighbours become grass.
Board after step 7
Column 5 already has its one tent, so its 2 open cells (R3C5, R5C5) become grass.
Board after step 8
Column 6 needs 2 more tents. Its open cells form runs of 1, 2; a run of two adjacent cells holds at most one tent, so the runs only just fit the count and each single-cell run must be a tent (R3C6).
Board after step 9
Row 3 already has its one tent, so its last open cell, R3C4, becomes grass.
Board after step 10
The tree at R4C4 has no tent yet, and every other side is already grass, another tree or the edge of the board. Its tent must go at R5C4, which also turns 1 surrounding cell to grass.
Board after step 11
Row 5 already has its one tent, so its last open cell, R5C6, becomes grass.
Board after step 12
Row 6 still needs 1 tent and has only one open cell left, R6C6, so the tent goes there and its eight neighbours become grass.
The finished board: every tree has its own tent and every count matches.
Know Star Battle already? Star Battle vs Tents shows which habits carry over. Or play unlimited Tents & Trees, Zip and Queens.
FAQ
How do you start a Tents & Trees puzzle?
Mark every cell that shares no edge with a tree as grass, then clear every row and column whose clue is 0. On most boards that removes a third or more of the grid before the first tent goes down.
When is a tent forced next to a tree?
When a tree has no tent beside it yet and three of its four sides are already grass, another tree or the edge of the board. The fourth side must hold its tent, and the eight cells around that tent become grass.
What is tree-shadow elimination in Tents?
If a tree can still use two cells, say the one above it and the one to its right, any other cell that touches both of them (here the diagonal between them) would touch the tent whichever cell gets it, so it must be grass.
How does line capacity work in Tents?
Two tents can never sit side by side, so a run of two adjacent open cells in a line holds at most one tent and a run of three holds at most two. When the runs in a row or column only just reach that line's clue, every single-cell run must be a tent.