Play Region dividing puzzle (Palisade) online Works — plays right here, unlimited puzzles
Guide updated October 2026 · Runs via WebAssembly (native port)
Palisade is a grid-division puzzle. You draw walls along grid lines to cut the board into regions that all have the same number of squares, shown in the status line. Some squares hold numbers that say how many of their four sides are walls, counting the outer edge of the grid. The puzzle is ready below; the default is a 5x5 grid of five-square regions.
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse / touch |
|---|---|---|
| Place a wall on an edge (again to remove) | Arrows, then Ctrl+arrow (full-grid mode) or Enter (half-grid mode) | Left-click the edge |
| Mark an edge as 'not a wall' (again to remove) | Shift+arrow (full-grid mode) or Space (half-grid mode) | Right-click the edge |
| Move the cursor | Arrow keys | - |
| 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.
Palisade 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
- Divide the whole grid into connected regions, all the same given size.
- A number in a square says how many of its four sides are walls.
- The outer border of the grid counts as a wall.
Sizes and difficulty
The Type menu offers 5x5 with regions of 5, 8x6 with regions of 6, 10x8 with regions of 8 and 15x12 with regions of 10. Custom sets the width, height and region size. The Preferences decide whether the keyboard cursor moves between squares or along the edges.
Solving tips
A 0 means none of its sides are walls, so it sits in the interior of a region with all four neighbours. A 3 is the end of a dead-end, joined by one side only. Squares on the border already have one wall, which shrinks their possibilities. Once a region reaches the target size, wall it off completely.
Where this puzzle comes from
Palisade 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
Does the edge of the grid count as a wall?
Yes. A numbered square on the border already has one wall from the edge, and a corner square has two.
Where does the name Five Cells come from?
Nikoli publishes this puzzle as Five Cells, because the classic version splits a grid into regions of five squares. Palisade lets you pick other region sizes.
Is Palisade free to play here?
Yes, with no limit on the number of puzzles. Palisade 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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- Spiral Galaxies puzzle (Galaxies)Play Spiral Galaxies free in your browser: divide the grid into regions that are each symm
- Number loop puzzle (Loopy)Play the number loop puzzle free in your browser: draw a single closed loop so each number
Want a game like this on your own site?
Region dividing puzzle (Palisade) 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.