Where the puzzle comes from
Queen Zones borrows its piece from the classic eight queens problem, an old chess teaser about placing eight queens so that none can attack another. This version swaps long-range attacks for a much smaller rule: two queens may not touch, even at a corner. In exchange it adds the coloured zones. That change turns a counting problem into a deduction puzzle. Every board here has one answer, and you can reach it without guessing.
The four rules work together. Rows and columns tell you where a queen can't go. Zones tell you where one must go. The touching rule cleans up the cells around each queen.
Read the zones before you tap
Start by scanning the colours, not the cells. The shapes of the zones hold most of the early information.
- A zone that sits in one row owns that row. Its queen has to be in that row, so no other zone can put a queen there. X every cell of that row that lies outside the zone. The same works for a zone that sits in one column.
- Two zones that lie entirely inside the same two rows own both rows between them. Every other zone is shut out of those rows. This also works with three zones squeezed into three rows. On the 8×8 and 9×9 boards, this group count is often the only way in.
- A small zone touches a lot. If every cell of a zone touches one outside cell, that outside cell can never hold a queen. Placing a queen there would leave the zone with nowhere to go. A zone of two cells side by side kills the cells directly above and below both of them.
Here is a short example on the 6×6 board. Say the yellow zone is three cells in a row across the middle of row 2. Its queen must be in row 2, so X the other three cells of that row. Now the cells of row 1 and row 3 above and below the middle yellow cell touch all three yellow cells. Neither can hold a queen, so X both. Two quick moves have cleared five cells, and nearby zones may now be down to one or two choices.
Working the X marks
An X is only a note to yourself, and it is free. Use it generously. Each time you place a queen, X the rest of its row, the rest of its column and the eight cells around it. The game does not add these marks for you, so make it a habit. A board full of X marks shows you the forced cells. Look for any row, column or zone with a single open cell left.
On a keyboard, the arrow keys move the selection, X marks a cell directly and Enter places a queen. That skips the tap cycle and makes marking much quicker.
Mistakes that cost time
- Forgetting the corners. Two queens touching corner to corner breaks the rules just as much as side by side. The board shows clashing queens in red, but it is better to X diagonal cells straight away.
- Placing a queen to see what happens. Every board has a single solution, so a guess that seems to work can still be wrong three moves later. Place a queen only when the cell is forced.
- Looking at one rule at a time. If you are stuck, go zone by zone and ask where each queen could still go. Then do the same for each row and each column. A forced cell usually turns up in one of the three passes.
- Leaning on Hint. Hint places one correct queen and clears any wrong marks in its row. It gets you moving, but it also skips the step you were missing, and a hinted solve won't count for the fastest-solve scoreboard.
A path through the sizes
Easy is 5×5 and Medium, the default, is 6×6. On these boards the single-row zones and touching tricks are usually enough. Hard is 8×8 and Expert is 9×9. These bigger boards often need the counting idea from above, where two or three zones together claim the same rows or columns. Move up a size once you can finish without Hint. If you enjoy this kind of placement logic, Star Battle uses the same tools with two stars per row, column and region.
