Little PlotLittle Plot strategy guide
Three stars means matching the best town anyone has found for that puzzle. Here is how to get there more often.
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Five habits that win stars
- Read the whole queue before your first move. The order never changes. If a park is coming fifth, decide now where its houses will stand.
- Build the scorers a home first. Bakeries, parks, wells and churches all count houses. A piece placed before its houses arrive scores nothing until they do, which is fine if you have planned it.
- Keep shops and parks apart. Houses want both, but a park loses a point for every bakery or market beside it. Two small clusters beat one crowded one.
- Use the map. Water gives houses a point and rocks give gardens a point. A town that hugs the shore usually outscores one in the middle.
- Try, look, undo. Undo is free and unlimited. Place a piece, read the score, take it back and try the other square. The last two points are nearly always found this way.
Where each building belongs
House1 point, or 2 beside water. Houses are the heart of every town, because five other buildings score from them. Put them beside water for the extra point, and leave a gap between them where a bakery, park or well can go.
Bakery1 per house beside it. A bakery wants to be surrounded: one in the middle of four houses scores 4. Two houses with a bakery between them is the most common strong start.
Park1 per house beside it, minus 1 per bakery or market. A park scores like a bakery but hates shops. One bakery beside it cancels one house. Give the park its own cluster of houses, away from the shopping street.
Market2 per bakery beside it, minus 2 per other market. A market does nothing alone. It scores 2 for each bakery beside it, so place bakeries first and slot the market between them. Two markets side by side cost you 4 points.
Garden2 beside a park, plus 1 per rock beside it. Worth 2 beside a park and 1 more for every rock, so the best spot is often a corner the map gives you for free: beside the park and against the rocks.
WellEach house beside it scores 1 more. A well scores nothing itself. Every house beside it scores 1 more, so it belongs where a bakery would go: in the middle of houses. With four houses around it, it is worth 4.
Inn1 per different building beside it. An inn counts the different kinds of building beside it. Four different neighbours score 4; four houses score 1. Use it to join two parts of your town.
Mill2 per empty square beside it. A mill scores 2 for every empty square beside it at the end. Put it on the far edge of town where nothing else will be built, and remember that later pieces may have to go next to it.
Church1 per house in its row and column. A church counts every house in its row and its column, however far away. Line houses up along one row and one column and put the church where they cross.
One tip for every world
Each world changes one rule. Knowing it is worth more than any general advice.
Kingdom: CoronationThe last building you place scores double. Save your best square for the final piece.
Colony: Drop podsBuild anywhere. A habitat beside an empty square scores 1 more. You can start a second cluster on the far side of the map.
Enchanted: Fairy pathsThe left and right edges of the map are joined. A building on the far left touches one on the far right; the dotted edges mark the join.
Pirate Cove: High tideAfter 6 buildings, every empty square beside the lagoon floods. The striped squares will go under: build on them first, or lose them.
Oasis: Shifting sandsA building cannot touch the one you built just before. The outlined building is the one to stay away from.
Northlands: Follow the trailEach building must touch the one you built just before. The outlined building is the one to build beside.
City: Build upStack a townhouse on another. The tower counts as two for its neighbors. A plus marks a townhouse you can stack on.
Alien Planet: Heavy gravityA building needs something in the square below it, or the bottom edge. Start on the bottom row and build upward.
Spooky Hollow: Restless gravesBuild beside a tombstone and it turns into a crooked house. Every tombstone is a free house waiting to wake.
Frontier: Main streetEvery row with no empty square left scores 4 more. A finished row gets a gold edge. Water and rocks count as filled.
Blossom Valley: No hurryYou may build the second piece in line instead of the first. Tap the piece with the swap mark below to build it first.
More to read: Strategy guide · Daily puzzle calendar · Daily games like Wordle · Town-building puzzle games