How to play Gleanly

Gleanly is a free, family-friendly daily logic puzzle. Each day there's one new garden to fill with seeds. There's exactly one answer, and you can always reach it by reasoning, never by guessing.

The rules

1. One seed in every row, every column, and every coloured plot.
2. Seeds never touch, not even corner to corner.
3. Stones can't hold a seed. A stone's number tells you how many seeds sit in the 8 squares around it.

Tap a square once to mark it empty (×) and twice to plant a seed. You can drag to mark several squares at once. You get 3 chances per garden: a seed that breaks a rule uses one, and you can always try the garden again for free. You also get 3 free hints per puzzle.

Board sizes and difficulty

Daily gardens come in three sizes: 6×6 (Gentle), 7×7 (Steady) and 8×8 (Tough). The week starts gentle and builds toward the weekend. There's also a practice path with a short tutorial and 40 levels, including challenge gardens and "frost" boss gardens where frozen stones hide their number until you plant a correct seed beside them.

Beginner tips

Start with the smallest plot

A plot with only two or three squares has very few places its seed can go. Look there first.

Cross out around every seed

As soon as you plant a seed, mark the rest of its row, its column, its plot, and all eight squares touching it as empty. That clears up the board fast.

Use the zero stones

A stone showing 0 means none of the squares around it can hold a seed, so you can cross all of them out right away.

Full stones fill themselves

If a stone's number equals the number of open squares left around it, every one of those squares must be a seed.

Strategy for harder gardens

A plot stuck in one row

If every open square of a plot sits in the same row (or column), that plot's seed must be in that line. So every other square in that row or column, outside the plot, can be crossed out.

Counting groups

If two plots fit entirely inside the same two rows, those two rows' seeds belong to those two plots. Cross out everything else in those rows. The same works for three plots in three rows, and for columns.

Squares that would break a neighbour

Before planting, ask what the seed would rule out. If a seed in one square would leave a nearby plot, row or column with no open squares, that square must be empty.

Stones work together

Two stones next to each other share some neighbours. Compare their numbers: if one stone needs more seeds than the shared squares can give, the extra seeds must go in its own, unshared squares.

Common questions

Is Gleanly free?

Yes. It runs in your web browser on phones, tablets and computers, with no account and no download.

When is the new puzzle?

A new daily garden appears at midnight in your own time zone.

Is it safe for kids?

Yes. There's no chat, no user content, no cookies and no third-party trackers. Your progress stays on your own device. See our privacy policy.

How is it different from Queens or Star Battle?

Like those puzzles, you place one item per row, column and region, and no two may touch. Gleanly adds numbered stones that count nearby seeds, so every garden gives you a few extra clues to reason with.

Play today's garden

Questions or ideas? Write to hello@playgleanly.com.