Mosaic Easy — Daily 5×5 Puzzle
Left click: white → black → unknown | Right click: black → white → unknown | Each number = black cells in its 3×3 neighborhood | green = satisfied red = too many
How to play Mosaic
Mosaic Easy is a 5×5 beginner puzzle. Each number tells you exactly how many of the cells in its 3×3 neighborhood (including itself) must be filled black.
- Left click cycles a cell: white → black → unknown. Right click cycles: black → white → unknown.
- A green number means that clue is exactly satisfied.
- A red number means you have placed too many black cells nearby.
- Satisfy all clues simultaneously to win.
- The ⬛ counter shows how many cells you've filled vs. the total needed.
About Mosaic Easy
What is Mosaic Easy?
Mosaic Easy is a 5×5 daily logic puzzle — the ideal starting point for anyone new to Mosaic (also known as Fill-a-Pix). The board is small enough to hold in your head entirely, but the constraint-satisfaction logic is the same as the full 9×9 standard puzzle. Every number tells you exactly how many cells in its 3×3 neighborhood — including the cell itself — must be filled black. Your task: determine which cells are black and which are white so all clues are satisfied at once.
The 5×5 format is deliberately small. A typical Easy puzzle takes 1–2 minutes even for a first-time solver. The constraints are tight, the logic chains are short, and every clue interacts with a manageable number of neighbors. It's a complete puzzle — not a stripped-down tutorial — just compact enough to be a quick daily habit.
How Mosaic Relates to Minesweeper
Mosaic shares Minesweeper's core mechanic almost exactly: a numbered cell counts the mines (black cells) in its surrounding neighborhood. In Minesweeper, you reveal safe cells to uncover those numbers. In Mosaic, all numbers are given upfront and you decide which cells to fill black.
The one meaningful difference is the neighborhood size. Minesweeper counts eight immediate neighbors. Mosaic counts a full 3×3 block — nine cells including the clue cell itself. A clue of 9 means every cell in that 3×3 block is black. A clue of 0 means every cell in that block is white. Those two cases are the easiest place to start on any Mosaic board.
Strategy Tips for 5×5
- Resolve 0 and max clues first. A 0 means all neighbors are white — mark them clear. The maximum value for a corner cell is 4, edge cell 6, interior cell 9. Any cell at its maximum means fill every neighbor black.
- Work from the corners. Corner cells on a 5×5 board have only 4 neighbors. Their clues are the most constrained and easiest to resolve with limited possibilities.
- Watch the cell counter. The ⬛ counter shows black cells placed vs. total needed for the solution. If you've placed the right number but haven't won yet, you've misplaced one — look for swaps.
- Compare adjacent clues. Two neighboring clues share several cells. Subtracting their values can tell you exactly which shared cells must differ, narrowing the solution quickly.
- Use unknown marks. If you're unsure about a cell, cycle it to the ? state rather than guessing black or white. Come back to it after resolving nearby constraints.
Ready for More?
Once the 5×5 Easy puzzle feels comfortable, the Mosaic Standard puzzle steps things up to a 9×9 grid. The same rules apply — the board is simply four times larger, with longer deduction chains and more complex overlapping constraints. There's a new puzzle every day on both sizes.
The How to Play guide covers every rule and technique in detail, including subset deduction and constraint propagation strategies that become essential on the 9×9 board.
For a completely different experience, the Custom Board tool lets you design and share your own Mosaic puzzles at any size.