Picross 3D: The DS Classic, Round 2, and How to Play 3D Picross Today

Quick facts: Picross 3D is a 3D nonogram game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS (Japan 2009, Europe and North America 2010). Its sequel, Picross 3D: Round 2, came out on the Nintendo 3DS (Japan 2015, North America and Europe 2016). Neither is on Switch, and since the 3DS eShop closed in 2023 they're only available as second-hand cartridges. On iPhone, games like Carve carry on the same idea.

On this page

1. What is Picross 3D?
2. How Picross 3D's clues work
3. What Picross 3D: Round 2 changed
4. Where can you play Picross 3D today?
5. Games like Picross 3D on iPhone
6. Picross 3D vs Carve at a glance
7. Tips if you're coming from Picross 3D

What is Picross 3D?

Classic picross (a nonogram) gives you an empty flat grid and asks you to fill in cells. Picross 3D flipped that around: it hands you a solid block of cubes and asks you to remove the ones that don't belong. Do it right and a small sculpture is left behind, such as an animal, a tool or a piece of furniture.

It was a sleeper hit. Reviewers loved how naturally the nonogram logic carried into three dimensions, and the game is still often recommended as one of the best puzzle games on the DS. The original's main mode alone has 350 puzzles.

How Picross 3D's clues work

Each row of cubes, in each of the three directions, can carry at most one number:

• The number is how many cubes in that line belong to the final shape.
• A plain number means those cubes are all in one connected group.
• A circled number means they're split into exactly two groups (a circled 4 could be 1+3 or 2+2).
• A squared number means three or more groups.
• No number means you get no information about that line.

You use a hammer to break cubes that can't belong and a paintbrush to mark the ones that must stay. Breaking a cube that belongs to the shape counts as a mistake. Rotating the block and peeling back layers lets you reach the cubes inside.

The logic is the same as flat nonograms (overlap, reach, capping finished groups), just applied along three axes. Our nonogram strategy guide covers those techniques, with a section specifically on 3D.

What Picross 3D: Round 2 changed

Picross 3D: Round 2 came out on the 3DS in Japan in October 2015, in North America in September 2016, and in Europe and Australia in December 2016. It has over 300 new puzzles, and its big addition is a second colour: as well as deciding which cubes stay, you decide whether each one is blue or orange. Reviewers found that this adds a whole new layer of deduction.

It wasn't universally loved. The extra colour means more tools to switch between, and some players found the controls busier than the original's simple hammer and brush. But critical reception was strong; Game Informer called it a high point of the series.

Where can you play Picross 3D today?

• Original hardware: both games are cartridges (DS and 3DS respectively), and the DS game also plays on a 3DS. Second-hand copies are the only option now.
• Digital: the original was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console (Europe and Japan 2016, North America 2017), but the Wii U and 3DS eShops stopped selling games in March 2023.
• Switch: there's no Picross 3D on Switch. The Switch's Picross library (mainly Jupiter's long-running Picross S series) is flat, 2D picross.
• Phone: there's no official Nintendo version, but several 3D nonogram games carry on the format.

Games like Picross 3D on iPhone

Carve: 3D Nonogram Puzzles

We should be upfront: we make Carve. We built it because we love Picross 3D and wanted that feeling on a phone. You chip away a stone block using numbered clues on each face, and every solve reveals a handcrafted voxel sculpture.

• 200 handcrafted puzzles across six chapters, from small first cuts to large multi-layer “Titans.”
• Familiar clue rules: a number plus a marker underneath, where a bar means one group, two dots mean two groups, and three dots mean three or more (Picross 3D's plain, circle and square, redrawn so a tumbled 6 can't be misread as a 9).
• Chip and Mark tools, with marked cubes protected from the hammer, plus slice sliders to reach the inside of big blocks.
• Every puzzle solvable by pure logic, with no timers. Each miss costs a star, and a third miss shatters the block, so careful deduction pays off.
• Free to download, with Chapter 1 (30 puzzles) free. The other chapters are one-time unlocks, with no subscription.

PiKuBo

PiKuBo is another 3D nonogram for iOS and Android, from developer Daniel Benito, released in 2024. It has hundreds of puzzles, with the first pack free and further packs as small in-app purchases. TouchArcade called it “a solid take on 3D Picross.” If you burn through one 3D picross game, it's worth trying the other.

Picross 3D vs Carve at a glance

Tips if you're coming from Picross 3D

• Zeros first, always. Clearing zero lines exposes new faces and new clues.
• Mark before you chip. Protecting cubes you've proved keeps a stray tap from costing you a miss.
• Two-group lines one short of full have their single gap somewhere in the interior, so both end cubes stay.
• Rotate constantly. The clue you need is usually on a face you're not looking at.