How to play Starlit
Starlit is a daily logic puzzle on a grid of colored tiles. You place stars until every row, every column and every color has exactly one, and no two stars touch. A puzzle takes one to five minutes.
The rules
- One star in every row and one in every column.
- One star in every color. The thick dark lines show where each color ends.
- Stars never touch, not even corner to corner.
An 8×8 board has 8 rows, 8 columns, 8 colors and 8 stars. Every puzzle has exactly one answer.
Controls
- Tap once to rule a tile out. It gets an ×.
- Tap twice to place a star. A third tap clears the tile.
- Drag across tiles to rule out several at once.
- On a keyboard: arrow keys move, Space cycles a tile, X rules out, S places a star.
- Hint highlights the next step you can prove and explains why.
Five techniques that solve every board
Every Starlit puzzle can be finished with the five moves below, used again and again. Easy puzzles need the first three. Medium puzzles add the fourth. Hard puzzles need the fifth at least once.
1. Clear the neighbors
The moment you place a star, rule out every tile in its row, its column and its color, and the eight tiles around it. With Auto rule-out on in Settings, the game dims those tiles for you.
2. Last free tile
If a row, column or color has only one tile that isn't ruled out, the star goes there. Small colors of one or two tiles are the usual place to start.
3. Squeeze
If all the free tiles of a color sit in one row, that color's star must be in that row, so every other tile in the row is empty. The same works for columns, and in reverse: if a row's free tiles all share one color, the rest of that color is empty.
4. Would it block?
Pick a tile and imagine a star on it. If that star would rule out every free tile of some other row, column or color, the tile can't hold a star. Tiles next to a short row or a tiny color are good suspects.
5. Count groups
If two colors fit entirely inside the same two rows, those two rows already have their two stars, one for each color. Rule out every other tile in those rows. It works for any number: three colors inside three columns clear the rest of those columns.
Questions
When does a new puzzle come out?
At midnight in your own time zone. The board gets a little bigger and harder through the week, with the toughest ones at the weekend.
Do I need an account?
No. Your streak, times and progress are saved in this browser. Clearing browser data removes them.
Does using a hint break my streak?
No. Your result just shows how many hints you used.
Is it like Queens?
The rules come from a classic puzzle type called Star Battle, the same family LinkedIn's Queens is built on. Starlit has its own boards, a daily puzzle, 300 practice puzzles and step-by-step hints.