From the rulebook
How to Solve Standout
Standout is a logic puzzle played on a square grid of numbers. You shade cells so that no number appears twice unshaded in any row or column, no two shaded cells share an edge, and every unshaded cell stays connected in one group. This guide takes you from the three rules to the techniques that crack hard grids without guessing.
The rules of Standout
A Standout grid is filled with numbers from one to the grid width, and many numbers repeat within a row or column. Your job is to shade the right cells so that the numbers left unshaded obey three rules at once.
No unshaded number may repeat in its row or column, so every duplicate must be resolved by shading all but one copy. No two shaded cells may share an edge, though shaded cells touching only at a corner are fine. Every unshaded cell must connect to every other unshaded cell through edge-to-edge unshaded neighbors, so the unshaded area is one piece.
Cycle a cell with a tap
Tap a cell to cycle it from blank to shaded to kept and back to blank. Shaded is your answer, the cell that leaves the board. Kept is an optional note that marks a cell you are sure stays unshaded, drawn as a circle around its number.
Only the shaded cells are graded at Check. Kept and blank both count as not shaded, so keeping is a memory aid that never changes the result. Solvers who never touch the keep marker earn the Pure Shade achievement.
Shade duplicates, keep the survivors
Scan every row and column for repeated numbers. Each duplicate group must end with exactly one copy unshaded, so the rest are shaded. When a value appears three times in a line, at least two of them shade, and the adjacency rule often decides which.
A number that appears only once in both its row and its column can never be shaded, because shading it would remove a value that no rule requires you to remove. Mark those unique numbers kept early, they anchor the connectivity of the unshaded area.
Let shaded cells force neighbors
Every time you confirm a shaded cell, its edge neighbors must stay unshaded, because two shaded cells cannot touch. Mark those neighbors kept at once, this is the most frequent deduction in the puzzle and skipping it hides easy progress.
The forcing runs in reverse too. If shading a cell would leave one of its neighbors as the only way out of an unshaded pocket, that cell must stay unshaded. Watch cells beside confirmed shades, where one more shade can strand a lone unshaded cell.
Resolve a triple in a line
When the same number sits three times in one row or column, the two outer copies often shade and the middle stays unshaded, because shading two neighbors would either break connectivity or force an illegal adjacency. Read the exact layout before committing, the pattern depends on where the copies sit.
A sandwich of value, other, value where the outer two match forces the middle to survive, because both matching copies cannot stay and their shared line mate between them cannot be shaded on both sides at once. These local shapes crack open the first moves of most boards.
Guard unshaded connectivity
Every unshaded cell needs a route to the rest of the unshaded group. An unshaded pocket with one remaining exit keeps that exit unshaded, since shading it would seal the pocket off. Watch the cells along edges and beside shaded pairs, where exits run out fastest.
Some cells are articulation points, single cells whose loss would split the unshaded area in two. An articulation cell can never be shaded, no matter how many duplicates its number has. On hard boards, spotting these cut points is what separates a stall from a breakthrough.
Combine duplicates, adjacency, and connectivity
The hardest deductions stack the rules. A shading that clears a duplicate might still be impossible because it seals an unshaded pocket, and a duplicate might resolve only one way once adjacency is applied. Cycle through the three rule families in turn, duplicates, adjacency, then connectivity, and each pass tightens the next.
On Puzzle Lair every Standout puzzle is guaranteed solvable by logic alone, so if you are stuck there is always a deduction waiting, never a guess. Standout is currently marked beta, so rules and tuning may still change as the puzzle is tested.
Work through a small example
Picture a column reading 1, 1, 2 from top to bottom, with a lone 3 to the side. The two 1s cannot both stay, so one of them shades. If the top 1 has a shaded cell already forced above it, the bottom 1 shades instead, and its edge neighbors become kept at once.
Now connectivity takes over. The kept neighbors join the unshaded group, they feed the next duplicate check in the crossing rows, and the chain of duplicate resolutions, adjacency forcing, and connectivity checks carries the board to its single solution.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between shaded and kept?
- Shaded is your answer, the cell you are removing from the board, and it is the only mark Check grades. Kept is an optional note that marks a cell you are sure stays unshaded, drawn as a circle around its number. Kept and blank both count as not shaded, so keeping never changes the result, it only helps you track your reasoning.
- Do I have to use the keep marker?
- No. Keeping is a note-taking aid, not a requirement. The puzzle is complete when the shaded cells match the solution, so blank and kept cells are interchangeable at Check. Solvers who finish a puzzle without ever using the keep marker earn the Pure Shade achievement.
- Can shaded cells touch diagonally?
- Yes. The adjacency rule only forbids shaded cells that share an edge. Two shaded cells meeting at a corner are legal, and diagonal chains of shaded cells are a common sight in solved boards.
- Can a number appear more than once if the copies are shaded?
- Yes. The duplicate rule only applies to unshaded numbers. A value may repeat as often as the grid demands, as long as every copy but one is shaded so that a single copy remains unshaded in each row and column.
- Does every Standout puzzle have exactly one solution?
- Yes. Every Puzzle Lair Standout puzzle is generated and verified to have exactly one solution reachable by pure logic. Being stuck means there is a deduction you have not spotted yet, often a duplicate you have not resolved or an unshaded pocket about to lose its last exit.
- What does Check do in Standout?
- Check tests your current shaded cells against the solution and reports whether the board is solved. There is no live feedback while you play and no mistake limit, so you can experiment freely and press Check whenever you think the shading is complete. A failed Check simply says the board is not solved yet.