Orbit Grid strategy: seven techniques that replace guessing
Every ranked Orbit Grid is solver-verified with exactly one solution, which means the board can always be finished by deduction alone. These are the seven moves that cover almost every position, roughly in the order you should try them.
1. Clear the zero lines first
Any row or column with a target of 0 can be marked empty in one sweep. This is free information and it often cuts a large zone down to two or three candidate cells before you have placed anything at all. Do this before you think about a single satellite — it costs five seconds and removes whole branches of the puzzle.
2. Find zones trapped in one line
If every cell of an orbit zone sits inside a single row, that zone's satellite must be in that row. You may not know which cell yet, but you already know the row's remaining target drops by one, and that every other zone is excluded from spending that satellite there. Single-line zones are the strongest early clue on the board and most daily puzzles contain at least one.
3. Use the touch shadow
The moment a satellite is placed, the eight cells around it are dead. Mark them. Beginners skip this because it feels obvious in the moment, then re-derive it three deductions later. The touch shadow is also what makes tight zones resolve: two adjacent zones can never both place satellites in neighbouring cells, so their candidate sets push each other apart.
4. Subtract with beacons
A beacon states exactly how many satellites are in the eight cells surrounding it. Two cases decide boards: a beacon showing 0 kills all eight neighbours instantly, and a beacon whose count equals the number of cells still available around it fills every one of them. In between, combine the beacon with the touch rule — a beacon reading 2 can never have both satellites adjacent to each other, which frequently leaves only one legal arrangement.
5. Count zones against lines
Add up the row targets across a block of rows, then count how many zones lie entirely inside those rows. If the numbers match, no zone from outside that block may reach in, and every cell in the block belonging to an outside zone can be marked impossible. This is the technique that unlocks the hardest Expert boards and it rarely needs more than three rows at a time.
6. Treat asteroids as free deductions
An asteroid cannot hold a satellite but its zone still needs one. A zone with several asteroids is therefore a narrow zone in disguise. Scan for those first when a board looks crowded — the smallest real candidate set is usually hiding behind a rock.
7. Verify before you place
Scoring punishes wrong placements (−60) far harder than slow thinking (−1 per 2 seconds after a three-minute grace period). A five-second check of the row target, the column target, the zone and the touch shadow is always cheaper than a mistake. The fastest scores on the leaderboard are almost never the fastest solves — they are the clean ones.
A practice routine that works
Play Easy practice until zero lines and touch shadows are automatic, then move to Standard, which matches the daily board. Use Expert only to train zone counting. Practice never affects your streak, score or leaderboard position, so there is no cost to drilling a technique ten times in a row.