NonoQuest
NonoQuest: Nonograms in the Look of Old Handhelds
NonoQuest: 190 handcrafted nonograms in 19 campaigns, color puzzles included, all solvable without guessing. Retro look, offline, no ads. Free to download, unlock once.
- For iPhone & iPad
- Free to start
- Unlock once
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What is a nonogram?
A nonogram is a picture puzzle on a grid. Along every row and every column there are numbers, and each number is a block of filled cells that appears in that line, in exactly that order and with at least one empty cell in between. A 3 means three black cells right next to each other. Think every line through to the end and a pixel picture appears.
The idea goes by many names: Japanese crossword, griddler or hanjie. It is always solved the same way. You look for the places where a block can only fit its line in one way, fill them, cross out what is certainly empty, and gain information for the columns that cross it.
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190 puzzles in 19 campaigns
The puzzles are built by hand, not generated, and spread across nineteen campaigns of ten each. Every campaign has a theme, from science fiction through fantasy and adventure to a spy mission, and every puzzle has a name and a line of story. The solved picture belongs to that story, and the ten pictures of a campaign finally come together as one large chapter picture.
Grids range from 5x5 to 20x20, from a puzzle for five minutes to one for a whole evening. The First Steps campaign introduces the game one technique at a time, and a short question on first launch decides where you begin. There is no fixed order: if you get stuck in one campaign, just carry on in another.
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Color puzzles: logic in several colors
In the color puzzles every clue number has its own color. The idea stays the same, with one difference: blocks of the same color need an empty cell between them, blocks of different colors may touch. That changes how you count, and it allows pictures that black and white cannot draw.
The color puzzles, too, can be solved with logic alone. The color campaign Paint Box is part of what you can play without buying anything.
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Four-step help that teaches something
Most nonogram apps can only help by revealing a cell. NonoQuest starts somewhere else. The first step names the technique and the place where it applies right now, such as “This line can be filled in completely right now.” Then come the questions “Where do I go next?” and “Is anything wrong?”. Only the fourth step shows a cell.
So the first three steps show you how to reach the answer yourself without giving it away. All techniques are also collected in a catalog, each with an example. If after a few puzzles you notice you hardly need the help anymore, you have learned what the game sets out to teach.
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Spot mistakes early, undo any move
A full line that does not match its numbers gets flagged before half an hour of work builds on it. You can set how clearly that happens in three steps, from Relaxed to Purist. Purist gives no feedback at all, so you find every mistake yourself.
Any move can be undone, up to 200 moves back. A drag across the board counts as one move, even if it fills twenty cells. You fill cells by tapping or dragging, and if you prefer precision, the directional pad moves the selection while the buttons switch between fill, cross and eraser.
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Up to three stars per puzzle
Every puzzle earns up to three stars: one for solving it, one for doing it without help and one for making no mistakes. Play a solved puzzle again to pick up the stars you missed.
On top of that there are Game Center achievements for anyone who likes collecting. None of it is required: the game is complete without signing in.
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Puzzle of the Day, endless mode and album
The Puzzle of the Day is the same for everyone worldwide, and it gets bigger toward the weekend. Your streak of solved days counts up, and solving every day of a month earns that month's badge. Missed days can be caught up on and still count.
Endless mode is meant for the time after the 190 puzzles: pick one of five sizes and keep going. Nothing is recorded there; it is just for playing.
The album keeps every solved picture in view, sorted by campaign and with progress bars. A solved picture can be shared as a tile, and if you want to play a puzzle again, you start it from there on an empty board without the picture leaving your album.
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Seven retro looks and chiptune music
The retro look is not a filter on top of a modern interface. Each of the seven display modes has its own pixel font, dot pattern and scanline structure: besides a plain mode without effects there is green phosphor with scanlines, an olive-green LCD with a dense pixel grid, the crisp dot-matrix image of a Japanese 16-bit computer or a terminal with a warm afterglow, among others.
Every campaign has its own chiptune music, plus short sounds for your moves. Sound is off by default and can be switched on if you want it.
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Playable with VoiceOver, Switch Control and a keyboard
A grid puzzle that can really be played without looking at the screen is rare. NonoQuest is fully playable with VoiceOver, Switch Control and a keyboard. Every grid cell speaks its position, its state and the clue numbers of its row and column.
In the same spirit, the game measures nothing that puts you under pressure: no timed scoring, no leaderboard, no lives and no energy waiting to refill.
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Free to download, unlock once
NonoQuest is free to download. Without buying anything you can play the tutorial, the Puzzle of the Day, the catalog of techniques and the first two campaigns, First Steps and the color campaign Paint Box. A one-time in-app purchase unlocks all 19 campaigns and endless mode. There is no subscription. If you bought NonoQuest before version 3.0, you keep everything without paying again.
The game runs fully offline, with no ads, no tracking and no account, and your progress is saved on the device.
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Frequently asked questions
Do you ever have to guess in NonoQuest? No. Each of the 190 puzzles can be solved with line logic alone, the color puzzles included, and a solver checks that on every test run. The same goes for the Puzzle of the Day and endless mode. Why that is not a given with logic puzzles is explained in Building Logic Puzzles With Exactly One Solution.
Do I have to play the campaigns in order? No. First Steps is meant as the way in. Once unlocked, every campaign is open, in any order.
I have never solved a nonogram. Can I get into it? Yes. A short question on first launch decides where you start. A guided tutorial explains the controls and the edge numbers with small exercises, and the First Steps campaign builds up the techniques one after another.
Which devices does NonoQuest run on? iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later.
What does NonoQuest cost? Downloading is free, and part of the game stays free for good: the tutorial, the Puzzle of the Day, the techniques and the first two campaigns. A one-time in-app purchase unlocks the rest, with no subscription. There are no ads.
I bought NonoQuest before version 3.0. Do I have to pay again? No. If you bought the app before 3.0, you get everything without another purchase.