Rasta
A daily Pakistani word-path puzzle
About Rasta
Rasta combines word recognition with route planning. On a six-row, five-column board, trace four answers of four, five, six and seven letters, moving only up, down, left or right. Each open tile must belong to one answer, and no route may reuse a tile. This teaching board uses musical instruments to make the path decisions visible; its words and layout are separate from the daily collection.
Rules and tips
Read a word and its route together
The four clues in this example are a four-letter double-reed woodwind, a five-letter bowed string instrument, a six-letter bowed string instrument and a seven-letter double-reed woodwind. Their answers are OBOE, CELLO, VIOLIN and BASSOON. Knowing those names still leaves the route to work out.
Count rows from the top and columns from the left. OBOE starts at row 4, column 4. Follow the numbered tiles right to B at (4,5), up to O at (3,5), then up to E at (2,5). Each move crosses a shared edge. The blocked squares cannot be used.
A convincing beginning can strand a tile
From the same starting O, you could instead go left to B at (4,3), then down to O at (5,3). The first three letters still read O-B-O. But there is no adjacent E to finish the word. The route is an unfinished attempt, not an alternative solution.
It also cuts off the N at (5,4), marked × below. That N can only connect through the starting O above it or the O on its left. Your tentative route has used both. No later answer could reach it without reusing a tile. Retrace this branch and take the B on the right of the starting square instead. Checking the remaining spaces catches the problem before you commit to a path.
Check the complete cover
After the correct OBOE route, the other answers follow these coordinates. All twenty-two open tiles are used exactly once:
- CELLO: (2,4) → (1,4) → (1,3) → (1,2) → (1,1).
- VIOLIN: (2,1) → (3,1) → (3,2) → (2,2) → (2,3) → (3,3).
- BASSOON: (4,3) → (4,2) → (5,2) → (6,2) → (6,3) → (5,3) → (5,4).
Carry the route check into daily play
Use the category and required length to propose a word, then inspect its entire route before tracing. Repeated letters can offer a convincing opening in the wrong direction. If a branch fails, revisit the last choice rather than assuming the word itself must be wrong.
Before committing, inspect corners and narrow pockets in the unused board. Every remaining tile needs a way into another answer. A hint can supply a starting point, but you still learn most by following how that information constrains the neighboring routes.