Pencil puzzles are logic puzzles you can solve with a pencil, paper and careful deductions. Some are number grids, some are picture puzzles, some ask you to draw a loop, and some are compact strategy games that work beautifully on a printed page.
Use this guide as a catalogue of puzzle styles. Each entry explains the basic idea, while playable titles link naturally from the puzzle name.
Pencil puzzles list
The list below is grouped by solving style. Linked names are playable on this site; unlinked names are included as useful reference entries.
Number and arithmetic pencil puzzles
Number and arithmetic pencil puzzles are paper logic puzzles where the main marks are digits, candidates, totals, inequalities, visibility clues or arithmetic cages. This section targets number pencil puzzles like Sudoku, Kakuro, KenKen, Futoshiki, Skyscrapers and other arithmetic grid puzzles to play online or print.
Sudoku
Sudoku is the classic number-placement pencil puzzle: fill every row, column and region without repeating a digit. It is a natural starting point because the rules are short but the solving techniques can grow for years.
Killer Sudoku
Killer Sudoku keeps the familiar Sudoku grid and adds cages with sum clues. It works well on paper because you can combine candidate marks with arithmetic combinations to narrow each cage.
Kakuro
Kakuro is a cross-sum puzzle, a little like a crossword made from digits. Each across or down run must add to its clue without repeating digits, so progress comes from both arithmetic and crossing logic.
Futoshiki
Futoshiki asks you to place numbers in a Latin-square grid while obeying inequality signs between neighbouring cells. It is compact, quick to learn, and good for practising candidate elimination.
KenKen
KenKen combines no-repeat rows and columns with arithmetic cages. The cages use totals and operations, so each placement has to satisfy both a grid rule and a calculation rule.
Suko
Suko is a small number-placement puzzle built around regional totals. It is usually faster than Sudoku, but every digit still has to satisfy several overlapping clues at once.
Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers treats the numbers as building heights. Outside clues tell you how many buildings are visible from each edge, creating a satisfying mix of Latin-square logic and visibility reasoning.
Suguru
Suguru uses irregular regions and a no-touch rule for matching numbers. It feels close to Sudoku, but the unusual region shapes make local deductions much more important.
Hidato
Hidato asks you to complete a consecutive number path through the grid. Given numbers anchor the route, and the puzzle is solved by squeezing each missing step into the only possible cells.
Thermometers
Thermometers uses thermometer shapes where values increase from bulb to tip. The visual order constraints make it easy to mark what can be low, high or forced in each shape.
Binary
Binary puzzles use only two symbols, usually 0 and 1. Rows and columns must stay balanced and avoid long repeats, so the challenge is clean pattern logic rather than arithmetic.
Calcudoku
Calcudoku is closely related to KenKen, with arithmetic cages and no-repeat rows and columns. It is a strong paper puzzle for anyone who likes small calculations tied to placement logic.
Str8ts
Str8ts divides the grid into white runs that must contain consecutive digits. Black cells break the board into smaller streets, so each run has its own candidate set.
Arrow Sudoku
Arrow Sudoku is a Sudoku variant where digits along an arrow must add to the circled digit. It is especially good if you like sum logic but still want a familiar Sudoku grid.
Sandwich Sudoku
Sandwich Sudoku uses outside clues showing the sum of digits between 1 and 9 in each row or column. The edge clues create long-range arithmetic pressure across the whole grid.
Kropki Sudoku
Kropki Sudoku marks neighbouring cells that are consecutive or in a double relationship. Those small dot clues quickly narrow pairs and make local adjacency matter.
Shading and painting pencil puzzles
Shading and painting pencil puzzles turn the grid into a pattern, picture, wall, island system or set of marked cells. This group is for visual pencil puzzles, Nonogram-style logic puzzles, shaded grid puzzles and paper puzzles where progress appears directly on the page.
Nonogram
Nonogram, also called Picross, uses row and column clues to decide which cells are filled. The result is often a picture, but the solving process is pure grid deduction.
Nurikabe
Nurikabe divides the grid into numbered islands separated by one connected wall. It is a great shading puzzle because local island sizes and global wall connectivity constantly interact.
Hitori
Hitori starts with a filled number grid and asks you to shade duplicates until every row and column is clean. It reverses the usual filling action, which makes it a refreshing paper puzzle.
Kuromasu
Kuromasu uses numbered cells that count visible white cells in straight lines. You shade other cells while preserving visibility rules and keeping the unshaded area connected.
Heyawake
Heyawake is a room-based shading puzzle with rules about room counts, adjacent shaded cells and long white corridors. It rewards combining local room information with whole-grid structure.
Tapa
Tapa uses numbers to describe groups of shaded cells around each clue. It has a compact rule set, but good puzzles create rich deductions about walls, gaps and connectivity.
Norinori
Norinori asks you to shade domino pairs inside regions. The rules are very small, yet the two-cell shape restriction produces plenty of precise placement logic.
LITS
LITS places shaded tetromino shapes inside regions while keeping the shaded area connected. It is a spatial pencil puzzle with a satisfying mix of shape logic and connectivity.
Fillomino
Fillomino divides the grid into areas whose sizes match the numbers inside them. Solving often means growing regions carefully while preventing same-sized regions from touching.
Mosaic
Mosaic, or Fill-a-Pix, uses number clues to tell how many nearby cells are filled. It turns local counting deductions into a picture-like result.
Akari
Akari, also called Light Up, asks you to place bulbs so every open cell is lit and no bulbs see each other. Numbered walls add exact local counts.
Yin-Yang
Yin-Yang asks you to colour every cell black or white while keeping both colours connected and avoiding solid 2x2 blocks. It is simple to learn but surprisingly strategic.
Nurimisaki
Nurimisaki is a shading puzzle built around numbered cape clues and white corridors. It belongs to the same family of precise Japanese grid logic as Nurikabe and Tapa.
Cave
Cave, also called Bag, separates one connected cave from the surrounding wall. Number clues measure visible cave cells, so each clue controls both shape and reach.
Shakashaka
Shakashaka places black triangles around numbered clues so the remaining white areas form rectangles. It is a geometric pencil puzzle with crisp visual deductions.
Line, loop and path pencil puzzles
Line, loop and path pencil puzzles are solved by drawing a route through the grid: a closed loop, bridge network, paired connection or clean path. They cover loop puzzles, path puzzles, connection puzzles and pencil-and-paper grid puzzles where the answer is drawn rather than filled with numbers.
Slitherlink
Slitherlink asks you to draw one continuous loop around cell edges. Each number tells how many surrounding edges are used, making it one of the cleanest loop puzzles on paper.
Masyu
Masyu is a loop puzzle built from black and white pearl clues. The pearl rules control turns and straight segments, so a small clue pattern can shape a large route.
Yajilin
Yajilin combines loop drawing with shaded-cell clues. Arrows count shaded cells in a direction, and the remaining open cells must form one continuous loop.
Numberlink
Numberlink asks you to connect matching endpoints with non-crossing paths. The best puzzles are about forced space: if one path goes somewhere, every other path must still fit.
Hashi
Hashi, or Bridges, connects numbered islands with horizontal and vertical bridges. Each island has an exact bridge count, and the final network must stay connected.
Galaxies
Galaxies, also known as Tentai Show, divides the grid into rotationally symmetric regions around marked dots. It is a calm spatial puzzle about shape and symmetry.
Country Road
Country Road asks you to draw one route through regions while respecting entry, exit and clue restrictions. It feels methodical because each region limits how the road can pass through.
Arukone
Arukone is a Numberlink-style connection puzzle. You join matching endpoints with paths that do not cross, using the remaining empty space as an important constraint.
Placement and region pencil puzzles
Placement and region pencil puzzles ask you to put objects, shapes, stars, tents, ships or borders into the only positions that satisfy the clues. They cover object-placement logic puzzles, region division puzzles and compact paper puzzles where short rules create a lot of deduction.
Tents and Trees
Tents and Trees asks you to place tents beside trees while matching row and column counts. The no-touching rule makes every confirmed tent remove several nearby possibilities.
Star Battle
Star Battle places stars in rows, columns and regions without letting them touch. It is a favourite pencil puzzle because every placement affects several constraints at once.
Queens
Queens uses chess-style placement ideas on a region grid. You place queens or crowns so rows, columns and regions are satisfied while avoiding attacks or adjacency conflicts.
Shikaku
Shikaku divides the grid into rectangles, each containing one number equal to its area. It is a gentle spatial puzzle where progress comes from testing which rectangle sizes can still fit.
Battleship
Battleship is a fleet-placement puzzle using row and column counts. Ships cannot touch, so each confirmed ship segment creates useful water around it.
Ripple Effect
Ripple Effect fills rooms with numbers while enforcing distance rules between equal values. It appeals to solvers who like region logic and candidate spacing.
Tatamibari
Tatamibari divides the grid into rectangles based on clue symbols. Each clue controls the orientation or shape of its rectangle, creating a quiet tiling challenge.
Classic pencil strategy games
Classic pencil strategy games broaden the roundup beyond solitary logic puzzles into two-player paper games, abstract grid games and quick pencil-and-paper contests. They still fit the pencil puzzle tradition because all you need is a drawn board, a few marks and careful tactical thinking.
Dots and Boxes
Dots and Boxes is a classic pencil-and-paper strategy game. Players draw edges around boxes, and the timing of when to complete a box decides the endgame.
Nine Men's Morris
Nine Men's Morris is a traditional paper-friendly board game about forming mills, or rows of three. It fits the pencil puzzle family as a compact abstract strategy game.
Twelve Men's Morris
Twelve Men's Morris expands the Morris idea with more pieces and a larger board. The extra material creates more threats, blocks and mill-building tactics.
Hex
Hex is a connection game where each player tries to link opposite sides of the board. It is easy to draw on paper and has deep strategy despite having no chance or hidden information.
Ataxx
Ataxx is an abstract territory game where pieces spread and convert nearby enemy pieces. It is less of a solo puzzle, but it belongs here as a compact grid strategy game.
Order and Chaos
Order and Chaos is a pencil-and-paper alignment game. One player tries to create a line, while the other fills the board to prevent any line from forming.
How to choose a pencil puzzle
If you like clean number logic, start with Sudoku, Futoshiki, KenKen or Kakuro. If you enjoy visual progress, try Nonogram, Mosaic, Nurikabe or Yin-Yang. If drawing a single elegant route sounds satisfying, Slitherlink, Masyu, Yajilin and Numberlink are natural next steps.
Difficulty varies more by puzzle design than by puzzle type. A gentle Kakuro can be easier than a hard Sudoku, and a small Masyu can be tougher than it looks. The best route is to choose a style you enjoy and build familiarity from easy grids upward.
Choose number puzzles when you like candidates, totals and exact exclusions.
Choose shading puzzles when you like visual patterns and local constraints.
Choose loop and path puzzles when you like spatial reasoning.
Choose placement puzzles when you like compact rules with a lot of deduction.
Playing pencil puzzles online
A printed pencil puzzle is still lovely, but online versions make it easier to undo, check mistakes, switch sizes and learn a new rule set without redrawing a grid.
Every linked title in the list opens a playable puzzle page. Unlinked entries are kept as reference items, so the guide still covers the wider pencil puzzle family.
Pencil Puzzles FAQ
What are pencil puzzles?
Pencil puzzles are puzzles designed to be solved with simple marks on paper: numbers, shaded cells, lines, symbols or object placements.
Are pencil puzzles the same as logic puzzles?
Many pencil puzzles are logic puzzles, but the term is broader. It can also include paper strategy games, word puzzles and visual deduction puzzles.
What is the best pencil puzzle for beginners?
Sudoku, Nonogram, Tents and Trees, Futoshiki and Binary are good starting points because their rules are short and early deductions are easy to see.
Can I play these pencil puzzles online?
Yes. Entries with a play link point to the matching online puzzle on Logic Puzzles Online.