How to Play Tents: seven solving techniques
Tents is a pairing puzzle wearing a counting puzzle costume. Each tree gets exactly one tent beside it, each tent belongs to exactly one tree, and no two tents touch — not even diagonally. Every puzzle here has exactly one solution, confirmed by a solver that shares no code with the generator.
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Cross the eight neighbours of every tent you place
Tents never touch, including diagonally. The moment you place one, all eight surrounding squares are grass. This is the single most productive action in the game and the easiest to forget.
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Clear every zero line first
A row or column marked 0 is entirely grass. Crossing those out costs nothing and usually forces several trees to have only one remaining side.
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A tree with one free side forces a tent
Every tree needs a tent orthogonally adjacent. When three of its four sides are grass, the fourth is a tent — no counting required.
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When free squares equal the remaining count, they are all tents
If a row needs two more tents and has exactly two squares that are still possible, both are tents. The mirror also holds: if the count is met, everything else in the line is grass.
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Think in pairs, not just in tents
Each tent must be matched to its own tree. If two trees can only reach the same single square, the position is wrong somewhere. Checking the pairing catches mistakes that counting alone will not.
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A square no tree can reach is grass
Tents only appear next to trees. Any square with no tree orthogonally adjacent can be crossed immediately — a quick sweep for these at the start narrows the board a lot.
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Re-read the counts after every cross
Crossing squares changes how many candidates a line has left, which is what triggers the fourth technique. Most stalls are just a count that became decisive and was not re-read.
The solution is unique, so nothing here needs guessing. If you are stuck, sweep once more for trees with a single free side — that check finds the next move more often than anything else.