10×10 Nonogram Puzzles

Every board in this bucket is a true 10×10, and they come from across the catalog rather than from one or two themes — everyday objects, alchemy and food & drink carry most of them, with single pieces from several other shelves alongside. It is the shortest shelf on the site, and worth treating as a rung rather than a destination.

A hundred cells is four times the area of a 5×5, and the jump changes what solving feels like more than the numbers suggest. This is the size at which the overlap rule starts to carry you. A clue of k in a line of n cells forces 2k − n cells to be filled wherever the block finally lands, so on a ten-cell line a clue of 8 hands you six cells immediately, a 7 gives you four and even a 6 gives you two. On these boards a first pass of pure overlap often fills a third of the grid before you have deduced anything at all — which is exactly why 10×10 is the right place to make that rule second nature.

The ratings reflect that. Almost nothing here is rated hard, and nothing at all is rated easy — the easy tier lives entirely at 5×5. So the bucket sits in a narrow band of normal boards that reward the method rather than punishing its absence.

The honest caveat is the size of the shelf. There are not many boards here, and the catalog's centre of gravity is plainly one step up: the 15×15 bucket holds several times as many. Treat 10×10 as the place to drill overlap until you trust it, then move on rather than waiting for this shelf to grow.

If a hundred cells still feels like a lot, the 5×5 letters are a gentler warm-up and the only easy-rated puzzles on the site. If it feels comfortable, 15×15 is next, and it is where overlap alone quietly stops being enough.