Arrow Puzzle strategy guide: how to solve every board

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Arrow Puzzle has only one rule – an arrow leaves the board in the direction its head points, if nothing is in the way – yet larger boards can feel like a knot. This guide gives you a repeatable method that works on every level, from a 5×5 Easy board to a crowded 14×14 Hard grid.

The rules that actually matter

Before the strategy, it helps to be precise about what the game checks when you tap an arrow:

• Only the head counts. The game looks at the cell in front of the arrow head and every cell after it in a straight line, all the way to the edge. The body of the arrow can be bent around any number of corners; it simply follows the head out.
• One blocker is enough. If any cell in that straight line is occupied by another arrow – even far away near the opposite edge – the move fails. The arrow slides up to the obstacle, bounces back, and the blocking arrow flashes red so you can see what stopped it.
• A failed move costs one heart. Easy gives you 5 hearts, Medium 3 and Hard only 2. Running out of hearts ends the level.
• The clock is per level. Your time budget is a base amount plus a few seconds for every arrow on the board (30 s + 6 s per arrow on Easy, 20 s + 4 s on Medium, 15 s + 2.8 s on Hard). The timer pauses when you switch tabs or scroll the board out of view.
• Every board is solvable. Each level is checked by a solver before you see it, so there is always at least one arrow you can remove safely.

The last point is the key to the whole game: you are never guessing whether a solution exists, only searching for the order.

Step 1: Read the board in “lanes”, not arrows

Beginners look at the arrows. Strong players look at the lanes – the straight line of cells between each arrow head and the edge of the board. A lane is either empty (the arrow is free) or it contains at least one obstacle.

Start your scan from the four edges. An arrow whose head sits on the outermost row or column and points outward has a lane of length zero: it is always free. Next look one cell inward, then two. Within a few seconds you will usually have spotted two or three free arrows without tapping anything.

Step 2: Remove free arrows that unlock the most

When several arrows are free, the order among them does not matter for solvability – a free arrow stays free when other arrows leave – but it matters for your thinking. Prefer arrows that:

1. Are long and winding. A 7-cell arrow snaking through the middle sits in the lanes of many other arrows. Removing it early often frees half a dozen at once.
2. Sit in the centre. Central cells are crossed by more lanes than edge cells, so clearing them opens more paths.
3. Block an arrow you were already watching. If you have identified a chain (see below), clear its last link first.

Removing an arrow can never make another arrow blocked, so there is no risk in clearing every free arrow you can see. The only cost is time.

Step 3: Trace blocking chains backwards

On Medium and Hard you will soon reach a moment where no arrow looks obviously free. This is where chains come in. Pick any arrow and ask three questions:

1. What is the first obstacle in its lane?
2. Is that obstacle arrow free? If yes, remove it.
3. If not, repeat the question for the obstacle.

Because the board is solvable, following blockers will always lead you to a free arrow eventually. A useful habit is to trace with your eyes – or your finger hovering over the screen – instead of tapping. Each wrong tap costs a heart; each second of tracing costs only a second.

Watch out for “far” blockers

The most common mistake is to check only the cells right in front of an arrow. A lane runs all the way to the edge, so a tiny arrow tail eight cells away still counts. On large boards, follow the lane to the very border before you commit.

Two arrows pointing at each other

If arrow A’s lane hits arrow B and B’s lane hits A, neither can move first – but the generator never produces a board where that is the whole story. One of them is also blocked by something else that can be cleared, or a third arrow is involved. Look for the third arrow.

Step 4: Use the bounce as information

If you do make a mistake, do not waste it. When an arrow bounces, the arrow that stopped it flashes. That flash tells you exactly which piece to deal with next. Many players deliberately take one “scouting” bump on Easy, where hearts are plentiful, to learn a board’s structure faster. On Hard, with two hearts, that is a luxury you cannot afford.

When to use hints

The Hint button highlights one arrow that is free right now, chosen at random among all free arrows. Easy gives unlimited hints, Medium three per level and Hard just one. Some rules of thumb:

• Never use a hint at the start of a level. The edges almost always contain a free arrow you can find yourself.
• Use a hint when you have traced two chains and both ended in arrows you are unsure about – that is the moment a wrong tap is most likely.
• On Hard, keep your single hint for the middle of the level, when the remaining arrows are long and tightly interlocked.

Managing the timer

The time budget grows with the number of arrows, so bigger boards are not unfairly short. On Easy and Medium you have several seconds of thinking per arrow, which is plenty if you clear free arrows quickly and spend the saved time on the hard middle part. On Hard, rhythm matters: tap obvious edge arrows immediately, and only slow down for genuinely tangled areas. If the timer bar turns red (10 seconds left), stop tracing long chains and clear anything you are already sure about.

How the strategy changes by mode

A five-minute practice routine

1. Play two Easy levels without tapping any arrow until you have named three free arrows in your head.
2. Play one Medium level and say each chain out loud: “red is blocked by blue, blue is blocked by the long green one, green is free.”
3. Replay the same Medium level (levels are fixed, so it will be identical) and try to finish with all hearts.

Doing this a few times trains the exact habit the hard levels demand: seeing the board as a map of dependencies rather than a pile of arrows.

Ready to try it? Play Arrow Puzzle now, or learn how the levels are built.