Net Pipe Puzzle Unblocked

Net Pipe Puzzle shows you a computer network that someone has spun to pieces. Every tile is in the right square, but each was rotated at random, so pipes point every which way. Your task is to turn them back until all the tiles link into one network fed from the source in the middle, with no stray circuits. It is Net from Simon Tatham’s puzzle collection, and each board has a single solution, which means logic alone always gets you there. You can play it unblocked here on boards from a snack-sized 5x5 to a sprawling 13x11.

Pieces of the Network

There are four pipe shapes: a dead end, a straight, a corner and a T-junction. You cannot move or swap tiles, only rotate them.

The black square near the center is the source. Anything connected to it is highlighted, and unconnected dead ends show as blue boxes that turn cyan once linked. The status bar tracks how many tiles are active.

A finished board meets three conditions:

• Every tile belongs to the single connected network.
• No pipe points into the outer border.
• The network contains no closed loop. Loops are drawn in red so you can spot them.

The Type menu lists five sizes, each also available in a wrapping version where pipes cross from one edge to the opposite. Custom adds barriers, fixed walls between tiles that act as extra clues.

Net Pipe Puzzle controls

To do this	Keyboard	Mouse	Touch
Turn a tile anticlockwise	Arrow keys to select, then A	Left-click	Tap
Turn a tile clockwise	D	Right-click	Press and hold
Spin a tile halfway round	F	—	—
Lock a tile in place or unlock it	S	Middle-click or Shift + click	—
Scroll a wrapping grid / move the source	Shift + arrows / Ctrl + arrows	—	—
New puzzle, undo, redo	N, U, R	Menu buttons above the grid	Menu buttons above the grid

Solving From the Outside In

Corners are almost free. On a non-wrapping board, a corner piece in a corner square has exactly one legal rotation, and a T-junction can never be there. Straights cannot sit in corners either.

Edges come next. Any tile on the border has one direction it cannot point. A T-junction on an edge must lay its flat back against the wall. A straight on an edge must run parallel to it.

Dead ends never face each other. Two dead ends pointing at one another would form a sealed pair cut off from the rest of the network.

Lock as you go. Once a tile is certain, lock it with S or a middle-click. On big boards this stops accidental clicks from undoing good work, and it makes the remaining unknowns stand out.

Watch for red. If a loop appears, there is usually one tile in it that has another legal rotation. Find it rather than reworking the whole area.

Leave wrapping boards until normal ones feel easy. With no walls, you have to reason from the pieces alone.

How It Compares

This is the rotating cousin of Netslide Pipe Puzzle, where tiles stay pointed the right way but must be slid into place. Rotation feels more forgiving, since each move touches just one tile. If you like drawing connections, Number Path is worth a look too.