Mochi Pixel

About Mochi Pixel

Mochi Pixel is a small, cozy nonogram - the picture-logic puzzle also called picross or paint-by-numbers. Each board is a blank grid of square cells with run-length number clues stacked along the left edge (one set per row) and across the top (one set per column). A clue like 2 1 means that line contains a run of two filled cells, then a gap, then a single filled cell, in that order. By reading a row's clues against the columns that cross it, you work out exactly which squares belong to the hidden candy picture and which stay empty.

What sets this version apart is the block budget. You are handed precisely as many candy blocks as the finished picture needs, and the top-of-screen counter shows how many you have LEFT to place. Spend a block on the wrong square and the game simply stops letting you place more once the budget runs out - you have to erase a mistake to free a block back up. You can never end with too many filled cells, which keeps the puzzle gentle: the win check is a forgiving exact match (your filled squares must equal the picture's squares, no more and no less), not a strict 'only one possible solution' rule.

The clue numbers help you check yourself as you go. Each row clue and column clue turns green the moment the COUNT of cells you have filled in that line equals the line's total, and red if you somehow go over it. It only ever looks at how MANY cells you filled, never at which ones, so it nudges you toward the right amount without spoiling where the squares actually go.

There are 20 hand-tuned levels arranged as five candy worlds of four levels each - Berry, Citrus, Mint, Ocean, and Galaxy - and the grid grows slowly from a tiny 3x3 in Berry up to a 6x6 in Ocean and Galaxy, where Galaxy's pictures are the densest. Clear the last curated level and Endless mode takes over, generating fresh boards that pick up at the 6x6 finale's difficulty and creep toward 7x7 with fuller pictures as the level number climbs. Every puzzle is built from its own solution, so it is always solvable, there is no timer and no way to lose, and finishing one always earns three stars and a sparkly reveal of the completed picture.

Want to get better? Read our full How to Play Nonograms guide.

How to play Mochi Pixel

1. Read the clues first: the numbers down the left tell you the filled runs in each row, and the numbers across the top do the same for each column.
2. Tap an empty cell to spend one candy block on it. Tap a filled cell again to erase it and get that block back.
3. Watch the LEFT counter at the top - it is your exact block budget. When it hits zero you have placed them all, so any remaining wrong guess has to be erased before you can fill elsewhere.
4. Use the green and red clue numbers as a check: a row or column clue goes green when you have filled the right TOTAL of cells in it, and red if you have filled too many.
5. Long-press a cell (hold it briefly) to flip your stroke into X-mark mode, then tap squares you have ruled out - the X is a memory aid only and is ignored by the win check.
6. Drag across several cells to paint them all in one stroke; the whole stroke repeats whatever you did to the first cell (fill, erase, X, or remove an X).
7. Place every block on its correct square so your filled cells exactly match the hidden picture - it lights up, you earn three stars, then tap Next or open Levels.

Controls

Tips & strategy

• Start with the biggest clue in a line. If a single run is longer than half the line, the cells in its middle must be filled no matter how the run slides - claim those overlap squares first.
• Mind the block budget. Because you can never place more blocks than the picture needs, an over-filled line shows up as a red clue number - back off and erase until it is no longer red.
• Treat a green clue as confirmation: once a row or column shows green, you have the right COUNT for that line, so spend your remaining blocks on lines that are still white.
• Lean on X-marks for cells you have proven empty. Flagging them stops you re-checking the same dead squares and makes the real filled runs jump out.
• Work rows and columns together - filling part of one column often forces a square in a crossing row, which forces the next column, and so on in a chain.
• When a row's runs plus the single gaps between them add up to the full width, the line is fully determined - fill it straight across.
• Stuck? Press C (or use Clear in settings) to wipe the board and look again with fresh eyes; you lose no progress and there is no penalty for restarting a board.

Game features

• A nonogram / picross puzzle: fill the grid from row and column run-length clues to reveal a hidden candy picture.
• A built-in block budget - you get exactly as many blocks as the picture needs, and the HUD counts how many are left so you can never over-fill.
• Live clue feedback: each row and column number turns green when its filled count matches and red when it goes over, by count only so it never gives the answer away.
• A forgiving exact-match win - your filled squares just have to equal the picture, with no strict single-solution requirement, so the boards stay kid-friendly.
• 20 hand-tuned levels across five candy worlds (Berry, Citrus, Mint, Ocean, Galaxy), each with its own colour palette and glow.
• Grids that ramp gently from a 3x3 in Berry up to 6x6 in Ocean and Galaxy, with Galaxy's pictures the densest.
• An Endless mode after the curated set that generates fresh boards starting at the 6x6 finale's difficulty and climbing toward 7x7.
• Tap-to-fill, drag-to-paint strokes, and a long-press X-mark mode for flagging ruled-out cells.
• No timer and no fail state, a one-button Clear to restart any board, three-star wins with a sparkly picture reveal, saved level progress, plus looping background music and mutable synthesized sound.

A Nonogram That Counts Your Mistakes

Most nonograms hand you a blank grid and let you over-fill freely, only flagging the damage at the very end. Mochi Pixel quietly closes that trap. You are issued exactly as many candy blocks as a valid solution needs, and the counter up top ticks down as you spend them; once it hits zero the grid simply refuses further fills until you erase one. The reframe is subtle but real. You stop avoiding mistakes and start budgeting them, weighing which square earns a block now and which can wait for a crossing line to force the issue.

The clue feedback is shrewder than it looks, and worth understanding precisely. Each row and column number turns green the instant your filled count for that line equals its total, and red the moment you overshoot, but it reads count only, never placement. So a green margin confirms your arithmetic without confessing where the squares belong; the deduction stays yours. The win check itself is the honest nonogram rule, not a picture-match: solve it any way the numbers allow and it accepts you. Two lit cells that satisfy a clue differently from the hidden art still count, which keeps the small boards forgiving rather than pedantic.

The presentation earns its keep without showing off. Filled cells are glossy candy tiles, a soft gradient under a top-left highlight, each one giving a brief springy pop the moment you press it, and the five pastel worlds, Berry through Galaxy, each carry their own glow color over a drifting field of pale sparkles. Solving a board does not flatten it on instantly; the picture wakes on a diagonal, cell after cell blooming out from the top-left while sparks scatter, set to a quick rising C-E-G chime. It is a small reward, but it lands cleanly every time and quietly pulls you toward the next grid.

The difficulty curve is the kindest thing here. Berry opens at a near-trivial three-by-three, so the rules teach themselves in a few taps, and grids creep up to a chewy six-by-six by Ocean and Galaxy, where the back-and-forth chaining between rows and columns becomes the actual work. No timer, no fail state, and a one-tap Clear when you want fresh eyes, with nothing lost for restarting. Long-press to drop X-marks on squares you have ruled out and the deductions start to cascade. It rewards a slow, quiet ten minutes far more than a hurried sitting.