PipeLink: read the ports before rotating a tile

A PipeLink tile can look close to the right position while still stopping the entire circuit. The useful question is not “Does this piece point toward the destination?” but “Can power enter this side and leave through the side I need?” This guide uses a small constructed board to show that difference. It is a teaching example, not a screenshot or a solution to a numbered level.

Read the connection before touching the board

Tap an unlocked pipe for one clockwise quarter-turn. Two taps turn it halfway and count as two rotations. Circular sources and square destinations have the same letter for each pair; they cannot rotate. A lit pipe is reachable from its source, but that alone does not mean the destination is connected. At every shared edge, both neighboring tiles need an opening. A pipe pointing into the solid side of another pipe stops there.

A straight piece has two opposite openings. An elbow has two adjacent openings. A T piece can branch. A cross is different: its horizontal and vertical channels stay separate, so entering from the left does not let power turn upward. From pack 4, both A→A and B→B must connect at the same time. Pack 5 adds fixed pipes that you must work around.

A circuit that needs three taps

Count rows from the top and columns from the left, starting at 1. The source is at row 2, column 1, facing right. Tile 1 is the vertical straight at (2,2). Tile 2 is the elbow at (2,3), initially opening up and right. The lower elbow at (3,3) already opens up and right; the square destination at (3,4) opens left.

1. Follow the source to tile 1. Its vertical openings cannot receive power from the left. Tap it once to make a left–right connection.
2. Inspect tile 2 before tapping. It must receive from the left and send power down. From its initial up–right orientation, one clockwise tap produces right–down; a second produces down–left. Tap twice.
3. Leave the lower elbow alone. It already receives power from above and exits right into the destination. The complete route now reaches A in three taps.

Use the goal, not the number of lit tiles

You do not need to power every tile to win. On this example, turning unrelated pieces cannot repair the missing left-hand entrance. On a full board, work outward from a source or backward from a fixed destination, checking one shared edge at a time. When a cross appears, trace straight through that channel before planning the next turn. An attractive-looking detour is only useful if all its entrances and exits really match.

What stars and help actually mean

The star target uses the count N of unlocked tiles other than empty cells and crosses. Up to 1.5×N rotations earns three stars; up to 2×N earns two; a completed circuit beyond that earns one. This is a scoring threshold, not proof of the shortest possible solution. In this constructed board N is 3: three or four taps meet the three-star threshold, while five taps meet the two-star threshold. The ordinary clear score starts at 400 and adds a rotation bonus; no-hint and dual-circuit multipliers may also apply.

Reset restores the initial arrangement and tap count. The current Hint control starts a sequence that rotates and locks pieces toward a stored solution; it is more revealing than a single suggested move. Use it when you want to watch a route develop, then restart to practise it yourself. There is no need to describe an assisted sequence as an independent solve.

Open an early level and predict both ports before each tap. Play PipeLink