Play Map colouring puzzle (Map) online Works — plays right here, unlimited puzzles
Guide updated October 2026 · Runs via WebAssembly (native port)
Map is a colouring puzzle built on the four-colour theorem. You get a map of irregular regions, a few of them already coloured, and you must colour the rest with four colours so that no two bordering regions match. The given colours make the answer unique. The puzzle is ready below; drag a colour from any region onto an empty one to start.
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse / touch |
|---|---|---|
| Colour a region | Move cursor onto a colour, Enter, move, Enter | Drag from a region of that colour into the empty region |
| Pencil a possible colour (stipple) | Space instead of Enter | Right-drag a colour |
| Clear a region | Enter twice without moving | Drag from an empty region or the map edge |
| Number the regions | L | - |
| Undo / redo | U or Ctrl+Z / R or Ctrl+R | Game menu |
FREE This is the complete game, free. Open source under the MIT licence: the complete puzzle, with a new grid every time.
Map is from Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, © Simon Tatham and contributors, used under the MIT licence. Built from source by scripts/build-puzzles.mjs.
How to play
- Colour every region with one of the four colours.
- Two regions that share a stretch of border must have different colours.
- Regions that only touch at a single corner point may share a colour.
- Regions coloured at the start are fixed and cannot be changed.
Sizes and difficulty
The Type menu offers a 20x15 map with 30 regions at Easy, Normal, Hard and Unreasonable, and a larger 30x25 map with 75 regions at Normal and Hard. Easy always has at least one region you can colour straight away; Normal and Hard need longer chains of reasoning but never guessing. Unreasonable makes the puzzle as hard as it can, and may need trial and error. Custom sets the size and the number of regions.
Solving tips
Look for a region surrounded by three differently coloured neighbours: only the fourth colour fits. Use the right-button stipples to note the two or three colours a region could still take; when a neighbour is settled, cross off candidates and the region often resolves. Long thin regions that touch many others are usually the most constrained, so work on them early.
Where this puzzle comes from
Map is part of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, a set of about forty logic puzzles written by Simon Tatham and contributors and released under the MIT licence. Every grid is generated on the spot, so the supply never runs out, and for the grid-logic puzzles the generator makes sure each has exactly one solution, reachable by reasoning rather than guessing. The version here is the collection's own code compiled to WebAssembly; the Game menu can save a puzzle to a file and load it again, and the Type menu changes the size and difficulty.
Frequently asked questions
Why are only four colours used?
The four-colour theorem says any flat map can be coloured with four colours so that no neighbours match. The puzzle gives you exactly four and some fixed regions, so there is only one way to finish.
Do regions that touch at a corner count as neighbours?
No. Only regions sharing a length of border must differ. Two regions meeting at a single point, diagonally, can be the same colour.
Is Map free to play here?
Yes, with no limit on the number of puzzles. Map is open-source software under the MIT licence, and every grid is generated fresh when you press New game.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. A tap works as a click and the puzzle resizes to fit the screen. Puzzles whose controls use the right mouse button are easier with a mouse.
More you can play in your browser
Related guides
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- Sudoku (Solo)Play Sudoku free in your browser: endless generated puzzles from Trivial to Unreasonable,
Want a game like this on your own site?
Map colouring puzzle (Map) isn't ours to give away — we host it, we didn't write it. But eleven of the games here we did write from scratch, and those are free for anyone to put on their own page: one line of HTML, no account, no permission, no attribution beyond a credit line.