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Beams

Fire beams in from the edge, then place the orbs where they must be. Every beam costs a point.

Medium Beams boxes

Medium boxes are 8 by 8 with four orbs, found with about seven beams at best. Beams start to bend more than once, so follow each one back from where it came out.

Practice gives you boxes you haven't solved yet, as many as you like, and keeps your best time. Every box is checked by a computer, so its beams can always pin the orbs down.

How to play Beams

  1. A few orbs hide in a dark box. The puzzle says how many. Find them all.
  2. Tap a port round the edge to fire a beam of light into the box. You don't see it inside, only what comes out:
  3. H, swallowed: it ran straight into an orb.
  4. R, reflected: it came back out where it went in. That happens when it meets two orbs at once, or when an orb sits beside its port, right at the edge.
  5. A number: it came out somewhere else, at the port with the same number. On the way, it bent 90° away from each orb it passed diagonally.
  6. Tap a cell to mark it as an orb, tap again to mark it empty, and once more to clear it.
  7. With every orb placed, press Check. The orbs show, and so does every beam's way through the box.

Your score is a point for every beam fired, plus 5 for each orb in the wrong place, so a good guess can beat another beam, and a bad one costs more. Fewer is better; a tie goes to the faster solve. On a keyboard, move with the arrow keys and fire or mark with Enter or Space. On a computer, right-click a cell to mark it empty.

Solving tips

  • A beam straight across says a lot, but not everything. Out at the port right opposite, it usually passed nothing. With three or more orbs, though, it can bend away and back into line on the way: fire another to be sure before you rule its row out.
  • Read the bends backwards. A beam that comes out round a corner turned somewhere: work out which orb, sitting diagonally ahead of it, could have turned it.
  • Watch the edges. A reflection at a port often means an orb right beside it on the edge.
  • Mark what you know. Marking cells empty narrows down where the rest can be. A hint tells you which beam would tell you the most, or a cell that has to hold an orb.