Tap any lamp to toggle it and its four neighbours. Switch every light off to win — the par shows the fewest moves possible. Stuck? A hint highlights an optimal press.
Lights Out
Every tap flips a lamp and its neighbours — turn them all off.
About Lights Out
Lights Out is a classic electronic logic puzzle from 1995: a grid of lamps where pressing one toggles it together with its four orthogonal neighbours. The goal is simple to state and tricky to do — switch every lamp off.
Ludingo generates thousands of guaranteed-solvable boards with an exact par (the minimum number of presses), so you can chase perfect solutions, race friends with a share link, and fight for a spot on the daily leaderboard.
Rules
- Tap a lamp to toggle it and its four direct neighbours.
- Diagonal neighbours are not affected.
- You win when every lamp is off.
- Pressing the same lamp twice cancels out — only the set of pressed lamps matters, never the order.
Strategy
Think in terms of a SET of presses, not a sequence — order never matters in Lights Out.
Light chasing: sweep row by row, pressing the lamp directly below each lit one — this pushes all light into the bottom row.
Once only the bottom row is lit, a small set of top-row presses finishes the board — the pattern below determines them exactly.
Never plan to press a lamp twice: the two presses cancel and both were wasted moves.
Tips
- Start on the easy 4×4 board to build intuition for how presses overlap.
- Watch the lit counter — good presses usually lower it, but sometimes it must rise before it can fall.
- The par is always achievable. If you are far over it, reset and rethink your press set.
- The hint highlights one press from an optimal solution for your CURRENT board — it adapts as you play.
FAQ
What is the goal of Lights Out?
Turn every lamp off. Each press toggles the pressed lamp and its four orthogonal neighbours, so presses interact — the puzzle is choosing the right set of lamps to press.
Is every board solvable?
Yes. Ludingo boards are generated by scrambling an all-off grid with real presses, which guarantees at least one solution — and the shown par is computed exactly by a solver.
What does the par mean?
The smallest number of presses that can solve the board. Matching the par is a perfect game; the daily leaderboard ranks solves by time.
Does the order of presses matter?
No. Lights Out is commutative: only the set of pressed lamps matters, and pressing a lamp twice is the same as never pressing it.
How do the difficulty levels differ?
Easy is a 4×4 grid with short solutions, Medium is the classic 5×5, and Hard is 6×6 with optimal solutions of up to 17 presses.
Can I play against friends?
Yes — solve a board and share the link: your friend gets the exact same board with your time to beat. Every puzzle has a stable id like easy_42.