How to play the Currents game
Currents is a fill-the-grid path puzzle. Each board is a small grid holding numbered gates. Starting on gate 1, you draw one unbroken line through the grid — up, down, left, or right, never diagonally and never crossing itself. The line must pass the gates in ascending order and land on the highest number exactly as the last cell fills. One line, every cell, numbers in order.
The steps
- Start on gate 1. Every current rises at the amber 1. Press it to take hold of the line — the timer starts with your first move.
- Drag through every cell. Extend the line up, down, left, or right into neighboring cells. The current may never cross itself, and a finished board leaves no cell untouched.
- Pass the gates in order. The line must flow through 2 before 3, 3 before 4, and so on. A gate reached too early blocks the current and shakes — find another way around.
- Finish on the highest gate. Land on the last number exactly as the final cell fills. Drag backwards to undo, tap the highest gate you have reached to clear, or spend a hint if the river runs dry.
The controls
- Draw. Press gate 1 and drag — with a finger or a mouse — into neighboring cells to extend the current one cell at a time.
- Undo. Drag backwards along the line to peel it back cell by cell, or step back onto the previous cell.
- Clear. Tap the highest gate you have reached (or the Clear button) to lift the whole line and start the route again. The timer keeps running.
- Blocked moves. Entering a gate before its turn — or stepping onto the highest gate while empty cells remain — is refused with a shake. Blocked moves count toward your rank, so route carefully.
- Hint. The lightbulb asks the server for the next correct cell along the true solution. If your current line has wandered off the solution path, the hint tells you to backtrack instead. Hints have a short cooldown and each one costs rank.
- Timer. The elapsed clock starts with your first move and stops the instant the final cell fills. It is shown by default so you can race your own best times.
Ranks
When you finish a puzzle you earn a rank based on how cleanly the current flowed — fewer hints and fewer blocked moves mean a higher rank.
- Clear Current — A flawless flow — no hints, no blocked moves.
- Strong Stream — Barely a ripple on the way through.
- Steady Flow — A sure, unhurried route through the grid.
- Meander — You wandered, but the current arrived.
- Eddy — Round and round — but every filled grid counts.
Tips
- Find the last gate before you draw. The highest number is where the current must end, on the very last cell of a full grid. Before your first move, look at where that gate sits and picture roughly how a line could arrive there having eaten the whole board. A route that reaches the final gate too early is wrong by definition.
- Respect the corners. A corner cell touches only two neighbors. Unless the current starts or ends in that corner, it has to flow in through one side and out through the other — both moves are forced. Spotting the forced corner turns first fixes big pieces of the route for free.
- Watch for cells running out of exits. Every time your line passes next to a cell without entering it, that cell loses a way in. If an unvisited cell is down to a single free neighbor, the current must enter it from that neighbor — or end on it. Two sealed-off neighbors means you have already made a mistake somewhere behind you.
- Backtrack early, not late. Dragging back along the line is free — it is how the game is meant to be played. The moment a pocket of cells looks cut off or a gate sits on the wrong side of your wall, pull back to the fork and try the other branch. Stubbornly finishing a doomed route costs more time than any undo.
- Let hints teach the next link. The lightbulb either confirms your line by revealing the next cell or tells you to backtrack. Use it when you are genuinely stuck, then study why that cell had to be next — usually a corner, a parity fact, or a nearly sealed pocket explains it. That pattern is yours to reuse forever.