The tutorial, step by step

When you open Quiltoku for the first time, a short guided tutorial teaches the game in seven tiny puzzles, one idea at a time. This page is the same walk-through in written form with pictures, so you can read it before you play, or come back to it later. The interactive tutorial in the game stays exactly as it is: tap the logo and choose Start, or press Show me how on the welcome card.

Lesson 1: tap a colour, tap a square

Every board comes with some squares already filled in. Those are the clues, and they cannot be changed. The rest are empty. To fill one, tap a colour in the palette under the board, then tap an empty square. Tap the same colour again on a square you filled to clear it.

One empty square, outlined. Three of the four colours in its row are showing.

In the first lesson almost the whole board is filled in, so there is only one thing to do, and the game flashes the square and the colour to show you.

Lesson 2: every row uses all the colours

A row is a line of squares going across. On a 4×4 board, a row has four squares, and it must contain four different colours, one of each. If you can see three colours in a row, the fourth one belongs in the gap.

The shaded row has red, green and yellow. Blue is missing, so the empty square is blue.

Lesson 3: every column, too

A column is a line of squares going down. The same rule applies. This time there are two lines passing through each empty square, and a colour has to fit both of them. When a square's row leaves two choices, its column often settles it.

The row (shaded) leaves red or yellow. The column has a red lower down, so the outlined square is yellow.

Lesson 4: every box, as well

The thick outlines split the board into boxes. On a 4×4 board there are four boxes of 2×2. Each box must also contain every colour once. This is the third thing to check, and the one that is easiest to forget.

The shaded box has red, green and blue. The empty square inside it must be yellow.

Lesson 5: colours are only one kind of mark

Marks do not have to be colours. They can be shapes, or patterns, and the rules do not change. The fourth lesson swaps the colours for shapes so you can see that the puzzle underneath is the same. Shapes and patterns are also there for players who find some colours hard to tell apart.

The same kind of board with shapes instead of flat colours. Each shape is also drawn in its own colour, which helps your eye.

In Settings you can choose which kind of mark you like best for the daily puzzle.

Lesson 6: Double, the outer layer

Now something different. In a Double puzzle, every square holds two marks: a big square and a small circle in the middle of it. Think of a donut. The big squares are one complete puzzle. The small circles are a second, separate puzzle, with its own answer. The rules apply to each layer on its own.

A Double board. Each square has a large coloured square (the outer layer) and a small circle inside it (the inner layer).

The sixth lesson only asks you to solve the outer layer, the donut, so you can get used to the picture.

Lesson 7: Double, the hole

The last lesson asks you to solve the inner layer, the hole, with the outer one already finished. You learn that the two layers do not help each other. A red outer square says nothing about the colour of the circle inside it. The trick is to keep them apart in your head, and to tap the right layer when you place a mark.

After the tutorial. You land on the welcome screen with three choices: today's puzzle, Level 1 of the long climb, or the calendar. If you already know Sudoku, you can skip the tutorial entirely and go straight in. You can replay it any time from the help screen.

What to read next

The how to solve guide goes through the four techniques that solve almost every puzzle. The variants guide covers Latin, Double and Scramble properly.