Hanayama Cast Puzzles by Level: One Pick for Each Difficulty, 2 to 6

Hanayama's six levels, and where to start

Hanayama, the Japanese maker of the Huzzle Cast puzzles, rates every design on its own six-step scale. The level names come straight from its catalog: 1 Fun, 2 Easy, 3 Normal, 4 Hard, 5 Expert and 6 Grand Master. Each puzzle also carries a code that starts with its level: HZ 4-08 is a Level 4 design.

Counts are the puzzles Hanayama listed at each level on its site on September 24, 2026, including licensed editions. We skip Level 1: Hanayama labels it Fun, and hobbyists suggest Levels 1 and 2 for young children rather than adults.

Where to start: an adult who enjoys puzzles should start at Level 4. A child, or anyone you want to finish their first puzzle, should start at Level 2 or 3. Nobody should start at Level 6.

One pick at each level

1. Hanayama Cast Box (Level 2) - the first puzzle for a child

A ring tangled on a cubic frame, designed by Yuta Akira and released in September 2012. The ring moves freely inside the cube; the job is to get it out. It is the gentlest pick here and the one to hand a child, or an adult who wants a fidget more than a fight.

2. Hanayama Cast Cross (Level 3) - the middle of the scale

Edi Nagata's 2022 design asks for vertical, horizontal, diagonal and rotational moves to separate two angular pieces, per Hanayama's description. Level 3 is where the scale starts asking for a plan, which makes Cross a good bridge between a beginner cast and a proper Level 4. Its Amazon listing is recent and has only 20 ratings so far.

3. Hanayama Cast Cylinder (Level 4) - the right first Hanayama for an adult

Finnish designer Vesa Timonen built Cylinder around a hidden mechanism with no outside clue about where to begin; Hanayama's own description tells you to approach it as if you were cracking open a safe. That is exactly what Level 4 should be: hard enough to feel like a real solve, fair enough to finish.

Hobbyists single out the reassembly as the tricky part, so do not scramble it for a friend until you can put it back yourself.

4. Hanayama Cast Labyrinth (Level 5) - the second puzzle

Sold in the US as Labyrinth and listed by Hanayama as Cast Laby (HZ 5-04), this is Nob Yoshigahara's revival of a maze puzzle from Britain's late-19th-century puzzle craze. There is one weak point in the labyrinth to find. It has been in Hanayama's line since 1997, and it is the natural step up once a Level 4 has fallen.

5. Hanayama Cast Chain (Level 6) - Grand Master, not a starting point

Oskar van Deventer's Chain (HZ 6-01, July 2002) is three linked pieces that, according to Hanayama, can be solved three different ways depending on which piece sits in the middle. It is the #1 pick in our best brain teasers ranking, and a lovely object. It is also the wrong first puzzle: hobby threads carry repeated warnings about Level 6 casts bought as someone's first.

6. Hanayama Cast Marble (Level 5) - the label trap

Cast Marble, by Oskar van Deventer and Bram Cohen, is a sphere that comes apart into four pieces, and one of the most-recommended casts in hobby threads. It is also the clearest case of a level mismatch: Hanayama's catalog rates it Level 5 (Expert), while its US Amazon listing sells it as Level 4. US listings carry the BePuzzled name and their own level on the box. When the two disagree, go by Hanayama's catalog.

The label trap: check the level on Hanayama's own site before you buy. Cast Marble is Level 5 there and Level 4 on the US listing.

How much should you trust the level?

Treat it as the designer's intent, not a promise. On r/mechanicalpuzzles, solvers report Level 4s that played like Level 5s and Level 6s, Chain among them, that fell in about an hour. Some find Marble easy once they see the trick; others spend days on it. Level still predicts difficulty well enough to shop by. It just cannot predict you.

Two more buying notes:

• Reassembly is a second puzzle. Solvers regularly report that putting a cast back together took far longer than taking it apart.
• Amazon's stars are pooled. Cylinder and Marble show the identical 4,652-rating count because Amazon groups several BePuzzled Hanayama listings together. Read those stars as a verdict on the line, not the individual puzzle.

How this was sourced

This guide is research-based: we have not solved or timed these puzzles for it. Levels, codes, designers and release dates come from each puzzle's page on Hanayama's official site, and the level counts from its catalog on September 24, 2026. Level mismatches were found by comparing those pages with the US Amazon listings, which also supplied prices and stars on the same day. Community experience is paraphrased from r/hanayama and r/mechanicalpuzzles.

For puzzles beyond Hanayama, our best brain teasers and mechanical puzzles ranks Cluebox, speed cubes and ThinkFun against the Chain, and the Metal Earth difficulty guide applies the same by-level approach to steel model kits.