The Witness puzzle rules: staged symbol hints and original examples

First check: what this page means by a region

A region is a group of cells bounded by your line and the grid's outer border. Cells belong to the same region when you can move between them up, down, left, or right without crossing the line. Cells touching only at a corner do not connect through that corner.

1. A line that reaches the outer border can divide the grid into multiple regions
2. Count every relevant symbol in the region, not only those next to the line
3. Unmarked cells also contribute to a region's area

Some symbols check the line itself rather than regions. Keep each symbol's rule separate.

Dots on the line: rule and original examples

The line must pass through ordinary black hexagonal dots. This is not a rule about enclosing the cell containing a dot.

1. Original example: a 2×2-cell grid, start at bottom left, end at top right, with just one required dot at the central intersection
2. Valid: go one edge right from the start, one edge up through the central dot, then one edge up and one edge right to the end
3. Invalid: go up the left boundary and right along the top. Reaching the end does not compensate for missing the central dot

Colored dots and dots of different sizes have additional conditions. Do not apply the black-dot explanation alone.

Colored squares: rule and original examples

Draw the line so that squares of different colors do not share a region. Squares of the same color do not all have to belong to one region.

1. Original example: a 2×2-cell grid with two black squares in the left column and two white squares in the right; start at bottom left and end at top right
2. Valid: go one edge right, two edges up the middle vertical line, then one edge right to the end. The two columns become separate regions
3. On another grid, dividing black squares into two separate regions is not itself a failure
4. If other symbols such as stars appear, satisfy their rules as well

You are not required to create exactly one black and one white region. Under this rule alone, a region containing no colored squares is also acceptable.

Two linked lines: rule and original examples

Moving one line moves the other in a corresponding way. Both must obey gaps and dot conditions, without crossing each other.

1. Use a short first movement to observe whether the relationship is a left-right reflection or something else
2. Original example: on a horizontally mirrored grid, moving one edge toward the center also moves the other line one edge toward it. A clear route on your side is unusable if the corresponding groove on the other side is broken
3. Use the blue line for blue dots and the yellow line for yellow dots. Either line can collect black dots
4. A line becoming invisible does not necessarily remove its linked movement. Track its position from the visible line

With multiple starting points, an identical line shape can assign the colors differently.

Stars: rule and original examples

In a region containing a star, there must be exactly two symbols of that star's color, including the star itself. Its partner need not be another star.

Wide tables scroll horizontally.

No matching entries in this table. Shorten the query or clear it to restore all entries.

With squares of different colors, a valid star pairing can still fail the square-separation rule. The same-color count refers to symbols, not the small cells composing a block shape.

Block shapes: rule and original examples

The region containing yellow block-shape symbols must be tiled exactly by their indicated shapes. Combine multiple shapes when they share a region.

1. Original example: two horizontal two-cell shapes can be stacked to fill a 2×2 region
2. Both symbols themselves must lie inside that 2×2 region. A shape's left end is not anchored to the cell bearing its symbol
3. Matching area alone is insufficient: two horizontal two-cell shapes cannot fill a region four cells tall and one cell wide
4. A symbol drawn at a slant permits rotation in 90-degree increments. Rotation is different from reflection
5. Do not rotate a normally upright shape simply to make a solution fit

These shapes are not necessarily four cells each, so this guide does not describe them solely as tetrominoes.

Blue hollow shapes: basic example and cautions

Blue hollow shapes subtract part of the yellow-shape arrangement. The following basic example leaves a positive area after subtraction.

1. Original example: put a yellow 2×2 four-cell shape and a blue one-cell shape in the same region
2. Subtracting one yellow corner with the blue cell leaves a three-cell L. Consider that L as a possible region
3. The final region must contain both the yellow and blue symbols themselves
4. For a multi-cell blue shape, its shape and orientation constrain the subtraction too. Do not simply subtract the cell counts

Advanced example: when identical yellow and blue two-cell shapes fully overlap in the same orientation and cancel, include both symbols in the same region. An area difference of zero does not require an impossible zero-cell region. Distinguish complete cancellation from the basic case in which the remaining shape tiles a region. Complex overlapping arrangements are not covered here.

Three-pronged cancellation symbols: rule and original examples

A three-pronged cancellation symbol satisfies conditions by removing one other symbol in the same region. Sharing a region matters; the symbols need not occupy adjacent cells.

1. Original example: one region contains two white squares, one black square, and one cancellation symbol
2. Cancel the black square, leaving only white squares and satisfying color separation
3. Isolating the cancellation symbol in another region cannot resolve the black square's violation
4. Do not assume a cancellation symbol may remain unused in an otherwise valid arrangement
5. With multiple cancellation symbols or stars, count the remaining symbols again after cancellation

This does not cancel any number of errors in a region or remove every color at once.

Triangles: rule and original examples

The triangle count in a cell must equal the number of its four edges traversed by the line. An outer border does not count unless your line actually follows it.

1. One triangle requires the line to use exactly one edge of that cell
2. Two triangles permit either two adjacent edges or two opposite edges, provided other conditions are also met
3. For three triangles, consider a line using three edges of that cell
4. Original example: a boundary cell contains two triangles. Using only its top edge and counting the left border as the second is invalid. The line itself must use two edges

Triangles do not specify the number of triangles sharing a region or the number of turns.

Final checks when several symbols combine

Reviewing each condition helps locate the problem more reliably than memorizing a line's shape. This is an editorial checklist, not the game's internal validation order.

1. Is the line connected from start to end without gaps or crossings?
2. Does it collect required dots and satisfy triangle edge counts?
3. Does each region avoid mixing squares of different colors?
4. For each color with a star, have you counted all same-colored symbols in the region?
5. Can the block shapes tile the region while meeting rotation and subtraction conditions?
6. If there is cancellation, which symbol is removed and how do the remaining symbols satisfy their rules?