Dark room

How to play Dark room

All cells in the 5 by 5 grid start as a mix of lit and dark squares. Tap a cell to toggle it and its four neighbours: up, down, left and right. Edge cells toggle fewer neighbours. Your goal is to turn off every single light. The game tracks how many taps you used. There is no time pressure, just see how few moves you need to clear the board.

Tips

• Solve row by row from top to bottom, do not jump around
• After fixing the top four rows, the bottom row tells you the rest
• Plan two or three moves ahead, the grid punishes guessing
• If you get stuck, restart, the same puzzle has many paths to the solution

About Dark room

The toggle-the-lights grid puzzle has been a classic for decades, first as a handheld toy with a glowing LED grid and now as a browser game. Every starting board has a known shortest solution that pure logic can reach. The fun part is finding it without writing equations. Our digital version gives you fresh layouts and an undo button so you can experiment without restarting.

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