Long threads and short threads

Before drawing anything, look at how far apart each pair is. That alone tells you which threads will wander around the board and which will stay put.

Measure the distance first

Two buttons next to each other usually need a short thread — two or three cells. Two buttons on opposite sides of the board need a long one. And since the whole board must be covered, every cell the short threads don’t take is left for the long ones.

This tells you a lot before the first move. Few colours on a big board means some threads must be long and winding. The more cells are left over, the more they wander.

On small boards it helps to count. If the short threads clearly take about ten cells of a 5×5 board, the long ones have to share the other fifteen between them.

Long threads go around

A long thread that cuts straight through the middle divides the board in two. Every other pair then has to sit entirely on one side. Usually that isn’t the case, so the straight line is wrong. A long thread along the edge divides nothing: the edge is a border already.

Red goes straight across and cuts the blue buttons apart. Blue can’t connect any more — red has to go around.

That is why the longest thread of a level often hugs the border while the short ones fill the middle.

Three pairs. Which one is the farthest apart?

Solved. The blue thread takes twelve cells and runs along the top, left and bottom edges; the other two fill the middle.

Don’t box in your neighbours

When a long thread runs around the edge, check what it passes. A button on the border with the long thread going by on both sides can only leave into the middle. That can be fine — just make sure its partner is reachable from there, and that the cells between the long thread and the button aren’t turned into a pocket.

A practical order: draw the short, obvious threads first, then look at the space that is left. The shape of the leftover area often shows the route of the long thread almost by itself.

Two long threads running side by side make a corridor. A corridor one cell wide can only be filled by a thread that runs along it from end to end, so before you leave such a gap, make sure some thread can enter at one end and has somewhere to go at the other.

One thread taking most of the board? That is normal in Journey: within one board size, fewer threads means longer threads, and that is harder.

Practise on the set with 3–5 long, winding threads, then continue in Journey. Related: corners and edges.

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