Pipes
About the game and how to play
Pipes is a pipe puzzle with three modes. In Turn you rotate tiles until every pipe joins one network connected to the water tank; in Colour flow you join same-coloured dots with pipes that never cross and fill the whole board; in Water flow you race the countdown to open a way from the tank to the drain — and keep ahead of the water once it starts. Turn and Water flow have four difficulties from Easy to Expert, Colour flow has 180 ready-made levels from 5×5 to 10×10, there is a daily board that is the same for everyone, four colour themes (water, lava, neon, gold) and statistics.
- Players
- 1 player
- Category
- Logic puzzles
- Price
- Free, no download, no sign-up
- Where to play
- In the browser on phone, tablet and computer
How to play
- Pick a mode — Turn, Colour flow or Water flow — and a difficulty (a level, in Colour flow).
- Turn: tap tiles to rotate them; you win when every pipe end meets another and the network reaches the tank.
- Colour flow: drag from a dot to draw its pipe; join every pair and fill every cell.
- Water flow: open a way from the tank to the drain before the countdown ends, or let the water go yourself — every tile it reaches is fixed.
Tips
- In Turn, start at the edges and corners: a pipe on the edge cannot point off the board, so it often has only one correct position. Hold a tile you are sure of to pin it so a stray tap cannot turn it.
- In Colour flow, join the short pairs and the ones on the edge first, then thread the long pipes through what is left. A cell squeezed between two colours tells you one of them has to pass through it.
- In Water flow, check the way back from the drain too. Let the water go as soon as the way is ready — every second left on the clock scores extra — and keep turning the tiles it has not reached yet while it flows.
Frequently asked questions
How many modes does Pipes have?
Three: Turn (rotate tiles to join the network), Colour flow (join same-coloured dots and fill the board) and Water flow (open a way for the water before time runs out). Turn and Water flow have Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert difficulties; Colour flow has 180 levels in six sizes.
What does “wraps around the edges” mean on Expert?
On the Expert Turn board a pipe that leaves one edge carries on from the opposite edge — left meets right and top meets bottom. That takes away the usual trick of starting from the corners and edges.
How is Water flow scored?
Every tile the water runs through is worth 10 points, every second left on the countdown when you let the water go is worth 5, and each hint costs 15. Your best score on each difficulty is kept.
What does a hint do?
In Turn and Water flow it puts one wrongly turned tile right and pins it; in Colour flow it draws one colour's pipe in full. Hints are free, but they are counted in your statistics.
Can Colour flow leave empty cells?
No. Every level is checked in advance: once every pair is joined by pipes that never cross, the board is always full. Levels open one after another, and the next size opens after 10 levels of the one before.