How to play Filoop
Connect each pair of matching buttons with a thread. Threads can’t cross, and together they must cover the whole cloth. That’s the entire game.
The rules
- Drag from a button to the other button of the same colour. The thread follows your finger from cell to cell, up, down, left or right — never diagonally.
- Threads can’t cross. If you run over another thread, it is cut; pull back and it comes back.
- The level is solved when every pair is connected and every cell of the cloth is covered. Connecting all pairs while leaving empty cells is not enough.
Every level has exactly one solution — the generator checks it with a solver before you see it. The dots ●●○○○ next to a level show the solver’s difficulty estimate.
Game modes
- Journey — levels from 5×5 to 10×10. Within one board size there are fewer, longer threads as you go, and that is what makes it harder.
- Turns — our own rule, explained below. Play Turns.
- Daily — three puzzles for today (Easy, Medium and Turns), the same for everyone. Solve all three to grow your streak. Today’s puzzle.
- Free — any board size, endless generation.
- Sets — hand-picked levels grouped by difficulty, from Warm-up to Hardcore. All sets.
- Twists — levels with extra rules: fences, holes, edgeless boards and bridges.
Turns
In Turns mode each button shows a number: how many times its thread must turn. A straight thread has 0 turns; an L-shape has 1. The other rules stay: no crossings, and the whole cloth must be covered. If a thread has the wrong number of turns, the level isn’t solved yet.
Numbers are a strong clue. A 0 means the two buttons are connected by a straight line, so they must share a row or a column. A high number on a short distance means the thread has to zigzag. More in the Turns guide.
Twists
- Fences — a dark bar between cells is a fence. Threads can’t pass it; go around. Fences set.
- Obstacles — a sunken cell is a hole in the cloth. Leave it empty; threads can’t go through. Obstacles set.
- No edges — lead a thread off the right side and it comes back on the left, off the bottom — back at the top. No edges set.
- Bridges — two threads cross on a bridge: one runs over it, the other under it, across. No turning on a bridge, and both passes must be filled. Bridges set.
Flawless solves and hints
Flawless ★ means each thread was drawn in one stroke, without hints: you plan in your head, then draw. Switching to another thread and coming back costs an extra stroke. A flawless solve rewards you with +1 hint.
Hint lays one thread out correctly — the one you were working on. The «＋» button gets you more hints. Undo takes back the last move; Reset clears the board.
Tips for your first levels
- Start in the corners and along the edges: a button there has only two or three ways to go. See corners and edges.
- Look for forced moves — a thread or an empty cell with only one possible continuation. Lay it and look again. See forced moves.
- Before you draw, check that you are not sealing off an empty pocket that no thread can reach. See avoiding empty pockets.
- If two buttons of the same colour sit side by side, don’t assume they just join directly — the cloth still has to be covered.
- Try the flawless way early: think the whole thread through, then draw it in one go. It’s slower at first and much faster later.
Want to go deeper? All strategy pages are in guides.
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