GridWits
Hard tier Technique 6 of 9 Used by Smart Hint

Don't Blind a Cell

A bulb that would blind every remaining source of some unlit cell is impossible.

How it works

  1. 1The crossed cell in the middle is still dark, and the four walls around it cut both its row and its column down to three cells.
  2. 2Three of the five cells in that cross are already ruled out, so only two can still light it: the one directly to its right and the one directly below it.
  3. 3Those two and the dark cell make three corners of a little square — and a bulb in the fourth corner would shine along its row into one of them and up its column into the other.
  4. 4That would leave the middle cell dark forever, so the fourth corner is empty. Only Light Source is the same idea with one candidate; this is the version for two or more.
  • Cells that establish the pattern
  • Cell this technique rules out
Next in the ladder Paired Clues →

Two clues that share neighbours, or whose neighbours see each other, often leave only one arrangement they both allow.