How to play the Neon game
Neon is a connect-the-pairs puzzle. Each board is a dark grid holding pairs of matching glowing symbols. Draw a line from each symbol to its twin — up, down, left, or right, never diagonally. Lines can never cross or share a cell. The board is solved when every pair is connected and every cell on the grid is lit by a line. Connect every pair, fill every cell.
The steps
- Press a symbol. Every line starts on one of the glowing symbols. Press it to take hold of a line in that symbol's color — the timer starts with your first move.
- Drag toward its twin. Extend the line up, down, left, or right into neighboring cells until it reaches the matching symbol. Lines may never cross or share a cell.
- Reroute when lines collide. Drag back along a line to shorten it, draw through another line to clear it, or tap either symbol of a pair to remove that pair's line and start it over.
- Light every cell. The board is solved when every pair is connected and no cell is left dark. If you are stuck, the lightbulb flags a wrong line or shows the next cell to reach.
The controls
- Draw. Press a symbol and drag — with a finger or a mouse — into neighboring cells to extend its line one cell at a time. Reach the matching symbol to complete the pair.
- Undo. Drag backwards along your own line to peel it back cell by cell.
- Overwrite. Dragging a line into a cell that another line already occupies erases that other line, so you can re-route without a separate undo step.
- Clear a line. Tap either symbol of a pair to remove the line connected to it. The Clear button lifts every line at once; the timer keeps running.
- Blocked moves. A line can't move diagonally, jump over a cell, or enter a symbol that isn't its own twin — those moves are refused with a shake. Blocked moves count toward your rank, so route carefully.
- Hint. The lightbulb asks the server for the next correct cell along the true solution. If one of your lines has wandered off the solution, the hint points at that line instead so you can fix it. Hints have a short cooldown and each one costs rank.
- Timer. The elapsed clock starts with your first move and stops the instant the last cell lights up. It is shown by default so you can race your own best times.
Ranks
When you finish a puzzle you earn a rank based on how cleanly you lit the board — fewer hints and fewer blocked moves mean a higher rank.
- Pure Light — Every line drawn once, no hints — the whole board lit in one pass.
- Bright Glow — A redraw or two, but the glow never dimmed.
- Steady Beam — A sure, unhurried route to a full board.
- Flicker — Some lines took a few tries to settle.
- Afterglow — Plenty of rerouting — but every lit board counts.
Tips
- Start with the pairs that hug the edge. A symbol sitting on the border, or one whose twin is only a wall's length away, usually has exactly one sensible route: along the edge. Drawing those lines first fixes the frame of the board and leaves the open middle for the pairs that need room.
- Every cell must be lit. A finished board has no dark cells, so a pair that could be joined by a short line often has to take the long way round to soak up the cells nobody else can reach. If a corner or pocket is left over after your obvious lines, ask which nearby line must bend to fill it.
- Watch for dead ends. A dark cell with only one free neighbor can only be filled by a line that ends there — and lines end only on symbols. If that cell is not a symbol, a line must pass through it, which needs two free neighbors. When a move would leave such a cell, the move is wrong.
- Lines cannot cross — use that as a wall. Once a line is drawn it splits the board. Two symbols on opposite sides of a finished line can never be connected, so before committing a long line, check that every remaining pair still sits together on the same side of it.
- Let hints teach the next link. The lightbulb either flags a line that has gone wrong or lights up the next cell a line should reach. Use it when you are genuinely stuck, then work out why that cell was forced — usually an edge, a dead end, or a pair that had to detour to fill a pocket. That pattern is yours to reuse.