How to play Draw Through the Maze
This is the classic pencil maze from puzzle books, brought to your screen. Each maze has one way in, one way out and exactly one route between them. Draw through the maze from the green dot to the red flag without touching a single wall. The mazes keep coming, each one a little bigger than the last, and the shapes change as you go: square grids, honeycomb hexagons and round mazes that you solve from the centre outwards.
- Choose Endless mazes for a run against the clock, or the Daily maze for today’s shared challenge.
- Press on the green dot and draw along the corridors. Keep your line away from the walls.
- Lift your finger whenever you need to, then continue from the pulsing end of your line.
- Reach the red flag to solve the maze. In Endless mode the next maze starts straight away with a fresh timer.
- Touching a wall costs a heart (Endless) or three seconds (Daily). Three touches and the run ends.
Maze solving tips
- Look before you draw. Spend a second or two scanning from the exit backwards. Dead ends are easier to spot from the goal than from the start.
- Stay in the middle of the corridor. The walls only hurt when you touch them. Drawing along the centre line of each passage gives you the most room for a wobbly hand.
- Slow down at corners. Most wall touches happen when cutting a corner too tightly. Go round corners wide and accelerate on the straights.
- Use the wall-follower rule. In a perfect maze, following one wall with your eyes (always keeping it on your left, say) will eventually lead you to the exit. It is not the fastest method, but it never fails.
- Circular mazes are solved inside out. Start in the centre and work towards the gap in the outer ring. The rings get longer as you go out, so look for the gaps that line up.
Three kinds of maze
Square mazes are the familiar grid with corridors running at right angles.Hexagon mazes are built from honeycomb cells with six walls each, so every junction can branch in more directions and your sense of direction gets a real workout. Circular mazes, sometimes called theta mazes, are made of rings around a central cell; you start in the middle and escape through the only gap in the outside wall. All of them are generated fresh for each game using a randomised depth-first search, the same algorithm many maze books use, so you will never run out of new mazes.
Tracing mazes is great practice for fine motor control and visual planning, which is why maze books are a favourite with children and puzzle fans alike. Here the timer and the touch-free rule add a skill challenge on top: you need a clear plan and a steady hand. Can you beat your best run, or set the fastest time on today’s maze?
Endless mode and the Daily Maze
In Endless mode every maze comes with its own timer, based on the length of its solution, so bigger mazes give you more time. The run continues until you run out of time or hearts, and your best number of solved mazes is saved. The Daily Maze is different: it is the same maze for everyone on the same day, with no time limit. The clock simply counts up and each wall touch adds three seconds, so a clean, steady line beats a fast but careless one.
More drawing challenges
If you like steady-hand challenges, test your control with Draw a Perfect Circle. Prefer planning puzzles? Find the shortest route in Delivery Routeor guide a whole car park home in Parking Path.
Draw Through the Maze FAQ
How do you play Draw Through the Maze?
Put your finger or mouse on the green dot and draw a line through the corridors to the red flag. Your line must not touch any wall. Reach the flag before the timer runs out and the next, bigger maze appears.
What happens if I touch a wall?
In Endless mode you lose one of your three hearts and the end of your line is rubbed out a little. Press on the end of the line to carry on. Lose all three hearts, or run out of time, and the run is over. In the Daily Maze every wall touch adds three seconds to your time instead.
Can I lift my finger while drawing?
Yes. Lift off whenever you like to look around, then press on the end of your line (it pulses blue) to continue. The timer keeps running, though.
What is the Daily Maze?
Every day there is one larger maze generated from the date, so everyone who plays that day gets the same maze. There is no time limit; your finishing time plus any penalties is saved as your best for the day.
Are the mazes always solvable?
Always. Every maze is generated as a perfect maze, which means there is exactly one route between any two points, and the route from the entrance to the exit is checked before you see it.
Does the maze game work on phones?
Yes. It works with touch, mouse and stylus. Mazes are scaled to fit your screen, and a wide maze is turned sideways on a tall phone screen so the corridors stay as wide as possible.