Square Routes

Square Routes is a new kind of puzzle from renowned puzzle designer, author, and former editor of Games Magazine R. Wayne Schmittberger, and G-Men Productions.

Maneuver your Adventurer through woods, rivers, and mountains, choosing among five modes of transportation each turn. Good planning is the key to completing your round trip within each puzzle’s move limit.

Square Routes is not ad-supported!

To solve a puzzle, start your Adventurer on any Goal square. You can change your Adventurer’s appearance, choosing from 32 avatars.

Next, choose a mode of transportation by tapping on the Horse, Bicycle, Canoe, Hang Glider, or Hot-Air Balloon icon below the puzzle grid. The possible squares your Adventurer can reach using that mode of transportation are highlighted. Tap on a highlighted square to select it, and your Adventurer moves there. Continue this way until you reach the other Goal square(s) and complete a return trip to your starting Goal square.

But there’s a catch! Each mode of transportation may only be used a limited number of times, as indicated by the numbers accompanying their icons. A transportation mode’s number decreases by one each time it is used, and once that number reaches zero, it may not be used again in that puzzle. The number of times each mode may be used varies from puzzle to puzzle, and some modes are not available at all in some puzzles.

Different modes allow you to move onto one or more squares of specific terrain types, as follows:

• Using a Horse allows you to move 1, 2, or 3 field squares (which include Goal squares); or 1 or 2 woods squares; or 1 mountain square.

• Using a Bicycle allows you to move 1, 2, or 3 road squares.

• Using a Canoe allows you to move 1 or 2 water squares.

• Using a Hang Glider allows you to jump from a mountain square to a field square that is exactly three squares away in the same diagonal.

• Using a Hot-Air Balloon allows you to jump from a field square to another field square that is exactly five squares away in the same row or column.

Certain basic strategies will quickly become apparent to the solver. For example, since only a Horse may be used to reach a Goal square, one Horse must be kept in reserve for the move that completes the round trip. If water must be crossed more times than the number of available Canoes, then Hang Gliders and/or Hot-Air Balloons must be reserved for those other crossings.

If you get stuck in a puzzle, you can Undo one or more moves, get a Hint, or Reset the entire puzzle. The Hints allow you to see:
• which of your moves are correct
• what the next move is
• how to get to the next Goal
• the entire solution to a puzzle

Help allows you to review the rules.

You can display the history of your moves or hide them for a cleaner map.

Download Square Routes today and enjoy a new kind of puzzle experience that exercises your brain and not your fingers.

The app comes with 15 free puzzles, and additional packs of 50 puzzles are available for purchase.