Guide

How to play Badgers.

Three rules, one sett a day, exactly one solution. The setts are made to be reasoned out, not guessed: the cages and the rows, columns and blocks are always enough, no guessing required.

Play today's sett Start with an easy one

The rules.

1. Every row, column and block holds each number once. The grid size sets the numbers: six by six uses 1 to 6, nine by nine uses 1 to 9. A block is the small rectangle marked by the thicker line, and it holds those same numbers once each too.

2. The dotted cages add up. A cage is the group of cells inside one dotted outline, and the small number in its top left corner is what its cells add up to, with no number repeated inside the cage. Nothing is filled in at the start: the cages are the whole puzzle.

3. Exactly one arrangement fits. Every row, column, block and cage at once. When the last cell is right, the game notices by itself.

Animation: every row of the grid fills with each number once, then the same happens by column and by block, and the grid turns green as solved.

Cages carry the other half of the puzzle. A short cage with a low or a high total often has only one possible set of numbers: two cells adding to a small total, or close to the largest one, leave little room to choose from. Once a cage is filled, correct and free of repeats, it goes quiet on the board, a soft cue only, never a judgement while you play.

Animation: a short cage is outlined, its numbers are worked out from its total and highlighted, then the cage dims once it is filled and correct.

A way in.

Every sett opens with steps like these. Hint finds the next one for you, names the rule and the place, and outlines the cage it is reading; press it again to write the number in and explain why. Hints are counted and shown when you finish, never hidden.

A cage of one cell. Its number is simply its total.
Only one way to make the total. A short cage with an extreme total, low or high, often allows only one set of numbers.
The single number left. A cell whose row, column, block and cage between them rule out every number but one.
Marks already placed. Numbers you have written narrow what still fits; Hint reasons from them the same way it reasons from the cages alone.

Animation: the Hint outlines the cage it is reading, marks the cell it means with a pulsing ring and explains why, then the number is written in; this repeats for the next steps.

Controls.

The same six things on a keyboard and under a finger, in the order you meet them.

Moving	Tap or click a cell to pick it. Drag across the sett with the mouse or a finger and every cell you run over joins the selection. Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) plus a click adds one cell or takes it away. Arrows or WASD move the selection and wrap round the edge, so down on the last row comes out at the top; Ctrl plus an arrow widens it, Escape lets it all go. The row, the column and the block are shaded only while a single cell is picked.
Writing	1 to 9 from the keyboard or the numeric keypad, or the pad under the sett; a six by six takes 1 to 6. With several cells picked, the number goes into all of them, and the same number again takes it back. Delete or Backspace works in one order: the big numbers first, then the marks, then the colour.
Modes	Four buttons under the pad. Normal writes the big number (Z). Corner puts small numbers in the corners of the cell (X), Centre puts them in the middle (C); with several cells picked a mark goes on everywhere, or comes off everywhere if they all have it. Colour paints the cell in one of nine colours (V). Space walks round all four, and holding Shift means Corner and holding Ctrl means Centre while the key is down. A big number covers the marks of its cell without throwing them away, so Delete brings them back.
Undo and Redo	Unlimited, one shared history for numbers, marks and colours. U or Ctrl+Z back, R, Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z forward. Ctrl+R is left alone; it reloads the page.
Restart	Takes the numbers, the marks and the colours off and leaves the sett as it started. The clock keeps running, and one Undo brings everything back. Settings can ask first, and do by default.
Check	First press says only how many numbers are wrong and which rows, columns or blocks they sit in; press it again and it marks them. With cells picked, only their rows, columns and blocks are checked. Nothing lights up on its own while you play.

Settings under the sett hold the rest: control method, timer, matching numbers, what a drag selects, what a number does in a cell that already has marks, error highlighting, the default note style, auto removal of restricted notes, auto pause, onscreen input only and the Restart question.

The week.

Difficulty is measured, not guessed. Every sett is solved by a program that only knows named rules, in three layers; the candidates for a date are ranked by how much the hard rules were needed.

Monday, Tuesday	Easy, six by six, numbers 1 to 6.
Wednesday, Thursday	Medium, nine by nine.
Friday, Saturday	Hard, nine by nine. More patterns before it opens up.
Sunday	Challenge, nine by nine, leaning on the hard rules the most.

This week

Practice, archive, history.

Practice sets: twenty-four setts with no date attached, three sets of eight for each level. They never change and do not touch your streak.

Archive: every daily sett since Wednesday 10 September 2025, free. The same page shows your own history: every sett you solved in this browser, with time and the hints and checks you used. Nothing is sent anywhere; it lives in your browser only.

Stuck or found something wrong? Write to support@arling.sk.