Trickle

Turn the pipes until the water reaches every plant.

← Parlour Games · How to play · Today's board

Turns 0Flowing 0

About this game

Trickle is a pipe puzzle. Water comes out of a valve in the middle of the board, and every tile around it is a piece of pipe pointing the wrong way. You turn tiles a quarter turn at a time until the water has a route to all of them, and then the board is finished.

There is no timer, no score and no way to lose, which is deliberate: it is meant to be something to do for a minute between other things, not something to get good at. Every board is generated from a solved layout and scrambled, so there is always a way through, and the Nudge button will straighten one tile for you at no cost if you would rather not find it yourself.

It runs in any browser on any phone or computer, works with a keyboard or with touch, keeps going offline once it has loaded, and needs no account. Trickle is made by PlantParlour, a free care record for houseplants — the pipes and the watering are not a coincidence.

Quick facts

What it is

A pipe-rotation puzzle: turn each tile a quarter turn until water from the middle valve reaches every tile on the board.

Cost

Free. There are no ads, no purchases and nothing to unlock.

Signup

None. You can play without an account; signing in to PlantParlour only saves your counts across devices.

Timer or score

Neither. There is no clock, no points and no fail state — a board cannot be lost, only left.

Board sizes

Three: 4×4 (Easy), 6×6 (Chill) and 8×8 (Deep).

Solvable

Always. Every board is generated from a solved layout and then scrambled, so a solution is guaranteed to exist.

If you get stuck

The Nudge button straightens one tile for you. It costs nothing and you can use it as often as you like.

Daily board

One 6×6 a day, the same for everyone in the world, with a par and a streak. At /parlour-games/trickle/daily.

Practice board

A guided 3×3 at /parlour-games/trickle/learn that explains each step. About thirty seconds.

Where it runs

Any phone, tablet or computer with a browser. Keyboard and touch both work, and it keeps playing offline once loaded.

Embedding

Yes — /parlour-games/trickle/embed is a board-only build made to sit in an iframe on another site.

Made by

PlantParlour, as a break page for people who keep plants.

Questions people ask

How do you play Trickle?

Water starts at the valve in the middle of the grid. Every other tile is a piece of pipe pointing the wrong way. Tap or click a tile to turn it a quarter turn, and keep turning tiles until the water has a path to all of them. When every tile is flowing, the board is done.

Is Trickle free?

Yes, completely. No payment, no account, no advertising and nothing to unlock. It is made by PlantParlour, a plant care app, as somewhere to sit for a minute.

Is there a timer or a score?

No. That is the point of it. There is no clock, no points, no lives and no losing — the only number on screen is how many turns you have taken, and it is there for interest rather than judgement.

Can a Trickle board be impossible?

No. Each board is built by generating a fully connected solution first and then rotating the tiles at random, so a solved arrangement always exists. If you get stuck, the free Nudge button turns one tile the right way.

What is the daily board?

One 6×6 board a day, dealt from the date, so everyone in the world gets the same puzzle on the same day. It shows par — the fewest turns that can solve it — keeps a streak of consecutive days, and gives you a result you can share without spoiling the board.

Can I put Trickle on my own website?

Yes. /parlour-games/trickle/embed is a board-only build with the page chrome stripped out, meant to be dropped into an iframe. It carries a small credit line back to PlantParlour and is the only path on the site that allows framing.

Trickle

The water's running