Habitat Builder

Overview

Habitat Builder is a constrained placement puzzle about making a small reserve work as a system. Every reserve uses a four-by-five grid and four tile types: water, meadow, forest, and shelter. The visible target panel tells you how many of each tile are required, while later reserves add relationships between neighbouring cells and the board edges.

How the reserve works

Choose a tile, then click or tap an open cell. A placement spends one move; replacing a tile spends another and updates the counts. Blocked cells marked with X cannot be built on. A reserve clears when all required counts and every visible ecology check pass. Depending on the stage, water or forest must form one connected group, water must touch both edges, forest must reach the edge, shelters must touch forest, and meadows must touch water.

Result separates a successful reserve from an over-budget attempt. Reset lets you rebuild the current reserve, while completed stages remain available from the Stage rail.

Progression and difficulty

Stages 1 and 2 teach counts and connected water. Stage 3 adds edge forest and shelter beside forest; stage 4 adds meadow beside water. Stage 5 introduces blocked cells, water spanning both edges, and connected forest. Stage 6 combines the checks. Stages 7–30 remix these authored rule profiles into six repeating chapters, with stage 30 as the finale.

Strategy tips

Read the check icons before placing the first tile. Reserve a path for the rule that needs an edge, and place the hardest adjacency first so a blocked cell does not strand it. Count tiles separately from ecology: meeting four quantities does not prove that water or forest is connected. Replace an early tile when it improves both a count and a neighbour check.

Player and Save Information

Touch, mouse, and keyboard-compatible pointer input use the same placement rules. No account or purchase is required. Completed-stage progress and the local best are stored in this browser; clearing site data or switching browsers can remove that record. The reserve checks describe this puzzle run and are not a formal environmental assessment.

FAQ

What clears a reserve?

Every required tile count and every ecology check must pass before the move budget ends.

Can I build on an X cell?

No. Blocked cells are part of the stage layout and cannot accept a tile.

What changes after the first stages?

Later stages add connectivity, edge, shelter, meadow, water-span, and blocked-cell rules in combinations.

How many stages are included?

There are 30 stages across six authored rule chapters; stage 30 is the finale.

Is progress saved?

Completed stages and local best progress stay only in this browser.