Solve Lights Out

Every press flips a cell and its neighbors — get all five-by-five lights off. Solvable by construction, with a hint when stuck.

Tools used in this guide

The job

Lights Out is the 1995 handheld puzzle: pressing a cell toggles it and its four neighbors, and the goal is a dark board. Order never matters — each cell is either pressed an odd or even number of times.

Press

Pick a scramble depth (8/14/20 presses) and play. Because the scramble was made by real presses, a solution exists for every board; the hint button names one cell from a solution.

The classic strategy: clear the top row by pressing the cells below its lit cells — "chase the lights" downward.
If the last row ends lit, a different first-row pattern is needed — the hint recovers it.

Worked example

A hard 20-press scramble typically unwinds in 8–15 correct presses; pressing the cell under each lit light from row 1 down is the surest method.

Where it stops

5×5 only — no other grid sizes, no move limit scoring, no replay. The hint gives one press, not the walkthrough; solving the rest is the game.