THE IDEA: A ROUTE ACROSS THE HONEYCOMB
A Hex Maze is a grid of hexagons with walls on some of the shared edges. You move from one hex to a neighbour only where there's an open gap — and because hexes have six sides, a single cell can border up to six others. Never through a wall. Your job is to link one unbroken route from S on the edge to F on the far side.
Three rules, that's the whole game:
- Start at S, finish at F. Both hexes are fixed; your route has to connect them.
- Step through open gaps only. Two hexes can sit edge to edge and still be split by a wall. Touching isn't the same as a passage.
- One continuous route. If a corridor dead-ends, back up and try another branch. There's always exactly one way through.
Don't let the six-sided cells throw you — more sides just means a junction can branch more ways. The skill is unchanged: spotting where the maze actually asks you to choose.
LET'S ACTUALLY SOLVE ONE — STEP BY STEP
Here's a real Hex Maze. S is the start hex on the edge, F is the finish on the far side. We'll trace a route from S to F, one stretch at a time.
The starting maze — S on the edge, F on the far side, walls in dark.
Step 1 — from S, follow the only way out.
Look at S — out of its six sides, only one has an open gap, so there's nothing to decide. The next hex is the same, and the next. When a corridor is single-file — walls on every side but the way on — you just follow it. That opening run carries us 4 cells in for free, right up to the first real fork.
Step 2 — at a junction, you finally get a choice.
Here's a junction (ringed): more than one open gap, so now we actually choose. Two ways open up (highlighted). On a hex grid a junction can fork three, four, even more ways — so this is exactly where you slow down and look before committing.
Step 3 — peek down each branch; drop the dead ends.
Glance down each branch before committing. One of them (the crossed hex) hits a wall almost immediately — a dead end, so it can't be on the route. The other (still highlighted) keeps going toward F. Easy choice once you've looked — and on a hex grid this little peek is doing more work, because there are more branches that could be traps.
Step 4 — follow the open corridor onward.
Take the branch that keeps going and you're back to following single-file corridors again — hex to hex across the honeycomb — until the next junction, where you do the exact same thing: peek, drop the dead ends, carry on.
Step 5 — arrive at F.
One unbroken route, edge to edge — solved. 👻
That's the whole puzzle: long stretches with no choice, broken up by a handful of junctions where you actually decide. Bigger hex mazes just mean more cells and more forks — the move never changes.
THE WHOLE METHOD, IN FOUR BEATS
Across the whole maze, you're only ever doing this loop:
- Follow the only way out. Single-file corridors have no choice — just walk them, whichever of the six ways is open.
- Stop at junctions. A hex with more than one open gap is the only place you decide.
- Peek down each branch. A branch that dead-ends can't be on the route — rule it out. Six sides means more to check, so look properly.
- Take the one that goes on, and repeat. Carry on to the next fork; back up if you hit a dead end.
Stuck? Back up to the last junction where you had more than one open gap and take a branch you haven't tried. A real Hex Maze always has a clean route through — you never have to guess.
A COUPLE OF FRIENDLY HABITS
- Work from both ends. Trace out from S and back from F. Dead-end stubs near each end get ruled out fast, and the two halves tend to meet somewhere in the middle.
- Mind all six directions. On squares your eye expects up/down/left/right; on hexes the open gap can head off at a slant you weren't watching. Scan every side of a junction before you pick.
- Remember the stubs you've ruled out. Once a dead-end corridor is crossed off, don't wander back into it from another angle.
THAT'S IT — GO DO ONE
Follow the corridor, stop at the forks, drop the dead ends, carry on. It's the same calm route-finding as a square maze, just on a honeycomb where each cell has a couple more doors — no sums, no rules to memorise, just a clean line traced across to a ghost waiting on the far side. Lovely for a quiet two minutes.