Archive · Zip #18

Zip #18 (October 13, 2026): solution and route

The 6×6 Medium puzzle from Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Play it first; the route and the solved path are folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

— 0:00TIMER

Loading the puzzle…

Zip #18 was the 6×6 medium board of Tuesday, October 13, 2026: 7 numbered dots, 4 walls, and one path that visits all 36 cells in order. Our solver, a line-for-line port of the app's, needed 341 search nodes to prove the path unique, which puts the board at 5 of 5 on the difficulty scale. Along the answer, 54% of the moves had only one legal continuation; the other 16 steps offered a real choice, and those are where you have to look ahead. The path turns at 59% of its cells, and its longest straight run is 6 cells. The longest leg, between two consecutive dots, is 12 cells.

Zip #18 in numbers

Board6×6, Medium
Numbered dots7
Walls4
Cells on the path36
Solver search nodes341 (5/5)
Moves with a single legal continuation54%
Decision points16
Turns along the path59%
Zip #18 route, dot by dot

How many cells each leg takes and which way it runs, reading from dot 1. “Right 3” means three steps to the right.

LegCellsDirections
1 → 21right 1
2 → 32right 1, down 1
3 → 412left 2, down 1, right 3, up 2, right 2, down 1, left 1
4 → 51down 1
5 → 610right 1, down 1, left 3, down 1, right 3, down 1
6 → 79left 5, up 1, right 1, up 1, left 1

Where the choices are: step 1 at row 1, column 1 (2 ways), step 3 at row 1, column 3 (2 ways), step 4 at row 2, column 3 (3 ways), step 5 at row 2, column 2 (2 ways), step 9 at row 3, column 3 (2 ways) and step 10 at row 3, column 4 (2 ways) and 10 more. Everywhere else only one move keeps the board solvable.

Zip #18 solution

The number in each cell is its position on the path; the dots keep their own numbers and are highlighted.

Back to the Zip archive, today's puzzle, or how to play Zip.