How to play Terrazzo

Terrazzo has one rule: every row and every column must match its dice. Here is how a board works, using the little puzzle from the front page.

A five by five board with dice beside each row and above each column, three squares marked with a cross, and four coloured pieces in a tray below — A board, its dice, and a tray of pieces.

Read the dice

Beside every row and above every column sit a few dice, one for each colour that line needs. A die’s pips tell you how many squares of its colour belong there: three pips, three squares. A colour with no die in a line gets no squares in it at all.

The fourth row of the board highlighted, with its two dice outlined: a yellow die with three pips and a green die with two — This row wants three yellow squares and two green ones.

Drag the pieces in

Pick up a piece from the tray and drag it onto the board. Pieces never turn, so the shape you see is the shape you place. While you hold it, the squares it would land on light up.

The red L-shaped piece held just above the right-hand side of the board, the squares under it lit — Hold a piece over the board to see where it lands.

As it lands, the dice it touches fill in, one ring for each square of their colour. When a line has exactly what its die asks for, the die lights up. Tap a placed piece to send it back to the tray.

The red piece placed in the two right-hand columns; the red dice of its three rows and two columns are lit — The red piece is in, and every red die it touches lights up.

Crosses and gaps

Squares with a cross never take a piece. Some plain squares stay empty in the answer too, so you don’t have to fill every gap. And if a line ends up with too many squares of one colour, its die shows a cross until you take one away.

Light every die

Place every piece so that every die is lit, and the puzzle is solved.

The finished board: all four pieces placed, every die lit, and eight plain squares still empty — All four pieces in, every die lit: solved.

A few tips

Start with the big numbers. A line that wants four or five squares of one colour leaves few places for that colour’s pieces.
Look for the piece that only fits once. Every puzzle has exactly one answer, so if a piece can only go in one place, it belongs there.
Mind the gaps. Add up what a line’s dice ask for: if it is less than the line’s free squares, the rest stay empty.
Stuck? Undo a move or ask for a hint. There are no lives to lose and no clock you have to beat.
Colours hard to tell apart? Turn on Color assist in Settings, and every colour gets its own shape, on the dice and on the pieces.

That’s all there is to it. Try the puzzle on the front page, then see how far the boards go.