Shikaku of the Day

What is Shikaku of the Day?

Shikaku of the Day drops a handful of numbers onto an empty grid and asks you to carve the board into rectangles. Each clue looks harmless, but every rectangle you draw steals territory from the others—and one careless border can make the remaining cells impossible to divide.

The game offers a fresh daily challenge at Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert, and Master difficulty. There is no guessing and no hidden vocabulary: every solution must be built through spatial deduction, area calculations, and the slow elimination of impossible shapes.

Shikaku of the Day Game Rules (The Catch / The Trap)

Your mission is to divide the entire grid into rectangles and squares.

Every completed region MUST obey three rules:

• It contains exactly one number.
• Its area equals that number.
• It cannot overlap another region or leave uncovered cells behind.

For example, a clue marked 6 could form several shapes:

1 × 6 = 6

2 × 3 = 6

3 × 2 = 6

6 × 1 = 6

But the surrounding clues and grid edges determine which version can actually survive.

A clue marked 4 might become:

■■■■ — a 1 × 4 rectangle

or

■■ ■■ — a 2 × 2 square

The catch is that a mathematically valid rectangle may still destroy the puzzle. If your 4 blocks the only possible route for a nearby 3, the board is not solved—you must erase the region and redraw it. The final grid CANNOT contain overlaps, multiple clues inside one rectangle, or even a single empty square.

How To Play Shikaku of the Day?

1. Choose the battlefield.
   Select Easy for a compact warm-up or climb toward Master for a denser and more dangerous grid.

2. Find the forced shape.
   Board Clue: a 3 sits against the top edge with other numbers blocking both sides.
   What You Learn: it cannot become a horizontal 1 × 3 region, so it must extend downward as 3 × 1.

3. Draw the rectangle.
   Drag from one corner to the opposite corner.
   Game Response: the chosen cells become one outlined region containing the 3 clue.

4. Test the remaining territory.
   Player Draws: a 2 × 3 rectangle around a 6.
   Result: one isolated cell remains beside a 4.
   Next Constraint: the 6 is mathematically correct but strategically impossible, so it must be redrawn as 3 × 2.

5. Seal every cell.
   Continue until each clue owns one correctly sized rectangle and the entire grid is covered.
   Result: ONE CLUE PER REGION | AREA MATCHED | NO GAPS.

Shikaku of the Day Strategy & Tips

Start with clues whose possible dimensions are heavily restricted. A 1 is always a single cell, while prime numbers such as 5 or 7 can only form long 1 × n or n × 1 rectangles. Corners and edges also remove possible orientations, making them excellent places to begin.

Before drawing a large rectangle, check every clue it surrounds. Large regions consume valuable space and are often responsible for trapping isolated cells.

When stuck, study an empty cell rather than a number. Ask which nearby clue could possibly claim that square. If only one clue can reach it, you have found a forced expansion—and possibly the move that unlocks the entire grid.