Orbit Grid

What Orbit Grid is

Orbit Grid is a compact deduction puzzle built for a short daily habit. The board is a 6×6 or 7×7 field of space divided into irregular outlined regions called orbit zones. Somewhere inside each zone sits exactly one satellite, and your job is to work out where. Nothing is random once the board is published: every clue you need is printed on the grid, and the puzzle is verified by a solver before it ever reaches a player, so guessing is never required and never rewarded.

The design goal was a game you can understand in under twenty seconds and finish in two to four minutes. There is no tutorial to sit through, no energy meter, no upgrade tree and no interruption between you and the board. You open the page, read four short rules, and start deducing.

How to play

Tap an empty cell once to place a satellite. Tap it again to mark the cell as impossible — a note to yourself that nothing can go there. A third tap clears it. Marking is optional but it is how experienced players avoid re-deriving the same deduction twice. Undo steps back through your moves, Restart clears the board, and Hint either removes a satellite you have placed incorrectly or reveals one correct satellite.

The four rules never change:

• Every outlined orbit zone contains exactly one satellite.
• The number printed beside a row or column is exactly how many satellites that line must contain — and it varies from line to line.
• No two satellites may touch, including diagonally.
• A numbered beacon counts the satellites in the eight cells surrounding it, and no satellite can share a beacon's cell.

Some boards also contain asteroids, drawn as triangles. A satellite can never be placed on an asteroid, but the asteroid's zone still needs its one satellite somewhere else. Row and column numbers grey out once they are satisfied, and any placement that breaks a rule is outlined immediately, so you always know the board state without being told the answer.

Daily challenge rules

A new Orbit Grid is published every day at 00:00 UTC and carries a sequential challenge number. Everyone worldwide plays the identical board, which is what makes scores comparable and results worth sharing. You get one ranked attempt per day. Your timer starts when you press start — not when the page loads — and unfinished progress is saved automatically, so you can close the tab, come back later and pick up the same board.

Once the ranked attempt is finished, that board stays open in unranked practice for as long as you like. Practice never affects your score, streak or leaderboard position.

Scoring explained

Accuracy matters more than speed. Every completed puzzle starts from 1000 points. Each rule-breaking placement costs 60 points, each hint costs 80, and time only begins to count after a three-minute grace period, at one point per two seconds and capped at 200 total. A finished puzzle never drops below 100 points, so a slow, careful solve still counts for something. The full breakdown is shown on the result screen — no hidden multipliers.

Practice difficulty levels

Practice offers three levels. Easy uses a 6×6 board with four satellites and generous beacon clues — a good place to learn the marking habit. Standard matches the daily board: 7×7 with five satellites. Expert keeps the 7×7 board but packs in six satellites and gives you fewer beacons, so more of the solve rests on zone and line counting. Every practice puzzle is generated and verified with the same solver as the daily board, so each one has exactly one solution.

Friend challenges

Finishing the daily board unlocks a challenge link. The link carries the challenge number, your score and a safe anonymous token — never the solution and never your personal details. A friend who opens it sees your score, plays the same board, and then gets a side-by-side comparison of score, time and mistakes with a clear winner. You can add each other as friends to keep the rematch going the next day. Sharing never buys you points; it just makes the puzzle more fun to argue about.