Naruto Grid

The Naruto Grid is a free daily puzzle on narutodle.app: a 3×3 board of row and column conditions where you fill each square with a Naruto character who matches both, using nine guesses in total and each character only once.

Each row and column carries one condition: a village, clan, rank, kekkei genkai, chakra nature, jutsu type or trait such as Jinchūriki. Hover over or tap a tile to read its exact definition. Seven Swordsmen, for example, reads “One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist (any generation)”.

You get nine guesses for the whole board, one per square if you never miss, and a wrong guess still uses one. A placed character is greyed out in the search for the rest of the board. Your score is the number of squares filled, from 0 to 9.

A second number counts deep cuts: correct answers who are not among the 115 characters with a full dossier page on the site. Each one earns a ⭐. A 9/9 built from Zabuza and Itachi is a good day; a 9/9 that also fits Ao and Toroi shows deeper reading.

A new Naruto Grid goes live at 00:00 UTC, and its answers are unrelated to the other modes that day.

The rules fit on an index card, and the general how to play guide covers the other modes on the site.

1. 1

   Read the six conditions

   Open today's Naruto Grid at narutodle.app/grid. Three conditions run down the left and three across the top; hover over or tap any tile for its definition.

2. 2

   Pick a square

   Tap a square. A panel shows its row and column conditions side by side. Start with the pair that looks narrowest, not the top-left corner.

3. 3

   Search for a character

   Type a name. Autocomplete matches English names, romaji and common aliases, and anyone already placed is greyed out. Each submission costs one of your nine guesses.

4. 4

   Check the stamp

   A correct answer fills the square with a portrait and a red ✓ seal, plus a gold ⭐ for a deep cut. A wrong answer flashes ✗, the square empties and the guess is gone.

5. 5

   Finish and share

   The board ends when all nine squares are filled, your guesses run out, or you press End game. Copy a spoiler-free result such as Naruto Grid #N 7/9 ⭐2, followed by a 3×3 block of 🟩 filled, ⭐ deep-cut and ⬛ empty squares.

A worked example. Take a Naruto Grid with Kirigakure, Kumogakure and Rogue Ninja as rows and Edo Tensei, Kenjutsu and Lightning as columns. The number of valid answers per square varies a lot:

The trap in this Naruto Grid is Kirigakure × Lightning, the scarcest square, with four answers: Chōjūrō, Ao, Ameyuri Ringo and Raiga Kurosuki. Chōjūrō is the only one of the four with a dossier page, and he also fits Kirigakure × Kenjutsu. Spend him there and the Lightning square can only take a deep cut, which is a ⭐ if you know Ao and a lost guess if you do not. Fill the scarcest square first, then work outward. With only one tight square, this board counts as Easy.

One clean run, in column order: Zabuza Momochi, Kisame Hoshigaki and Ao across Kirigakure; Toroi, Killer B and A, the Fourth Raikage, across Kumogakure; Itachi, Sasuke and Obito across Rogue Ninja. Ao and Toroi have no dossier page, so both are deep cuts and the share line reads Naruto Grid #N 9/9 ⭐2.

The Naruto Grid draws on 43 conditions in eight families. Some are broad on purpose: Konohagakure has 87 members, because small categories such as Hyūga (7) or Iwagakure (14) need broad partners to form a square with enough answers. The rule of 3 to 30 valid answers per square then throws out any pair that is too wide. Near-universal conditions never appear at all: “uses ninjutsu” covers 202 characters and taijutsu 169. No single condition shows up in more than 85 of the 365 grids in the bank, so the broad ones never take over.

Villages pair best with traits and natures. A village never meets another village at a square, and a clan never meets another clan. Rogue ninja keep their home village, so Kisame still counts for Kirigakure.

Ranks are frozen at the end of Shippūden: Kakashi is a Kage and Sasuke a Rogue Ninja. Past Kage count too, such as Gengetsu Hōzuki, the Second Mizukage.

Traits carry the most story. Edo Tensei (39) marks anyone brought back by the Impure World Reincarnation, so Mist swordsmen and former Kage crowd it. Jinchūriki covers anyone who ever hosted a tailed beast, and Akatsuki anyone who was ever a member.

For kekkei genkai squares, our kekkei genkai list names the holders of all 18 bloodline abilities in the dataset. Chakra natures are the widest family, with Earth at 106 members, so they usually meet a narrow row such as a clan. When a name escapes you, the character roster has all 210 profiles.

Difficulty comes from tight squares, meaning squares with 4 or fewer valid answers. A grid with 0–1 tight squares is Easy, 2–3 is Medium and 4 or more is Hard. The single scarcest square cannot tell easy from hard, because 85% of valid grids contain at least one square with only 3 answers. The bank holds 365 Naruto Grid boards, 147 Easy, 155 Medium and 63 Hard, and the week runs Easy, Medium, Easy, Medium, Easy, Medium, Hard. On a few days a neighbouring level stands in when the preferred one is unavailable.

These tips come from counting how many of the 43 conditions each character satisfies. Characters who fit many conditions are flexible answers in any Naruto Grid, and flexible answers are the ones you should not spend early.

• 一

  Fill the scarcest square first. Solve the pair with the fewest plausible answers before anything else. In the worked example that was Kirigakure × Lightning, with four answers; every other square had at least five.

• 二

  Hold back the all-rounders. The most versatile characters on the site are Madara Uchiha (22 of 43 conditions), Obito Uchiha (20) and Hashirama Senju (18), then Itachi Uchiha, Kabuto Yakushi and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki (16 each). They fit almost anywhere, so save them for the square nothing else fits.

• 三

  Count the Uchiha before you commit. Four of the top ten are Uchiha: Madara, Obito, Itachi and Sasuke, who is tenth with 14. Kakashi Hatake, Tobirama Senju and Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki (15 each) make up the rest. When Uchiha is a row, several columns will want the same few names, so plan the whole row before placing anyone.

• 四

  Read the definition, not your memory. Ranks and affiliations follow the end-of-Shippūden snapshot, so Kakashi is a Kage and Sasuke a Rogue Ninja. A second of reading costs less than one of your nine guesses.

• 五

  Walk the story arc by arc. Stuck on a village pair? List who appeared in each arc, in order. Most Mist swordsmen, for instance, return in the Fourth Shinobi World War as reanimated fighters. Our guide to Naruto arcs in order shows who debuted where.

• 六

  Hunt deep cuts where answers are plentiful. Wide squares like Kumogakure × Lightning, with 14 answers, are the safe place to try a lesser-known name for a ⭐. On a three-answer square, take the name you are sure of.

• 七

  Treat nine guesses as a budget. Every miss is a square you will not fill. Torn between two names? Place the one that fits fewer other squares. Not sure of any? Leave the square until the rest of the board narrows it.

None of this guarantees a 9/9, but it turns the Naruto Grid from guesswork into a plan.

Each daily mode on narutodle.app works a different muscle. Classic Narutodle is deduction: you find one hidden character from nine columns of attribute feedback. Shinobi Squads asks you to sort 16 shinobi into four hidden groups. The Naruto Grid sits between them: you need the attributes, but you supply nine answers yourself.

Sports grids use the same board but lean on team and career histories. The Naruto Grid swaps those for villages, clans, kekkei genkai and story traits, all judged against one public dataset.