How to play Connect the Dots
- Press Start. Find a pair of matching lamps; each pair shares a color and a symbol.
- Drag from one lamp to its twin. The tube follows your finger one cell at a time, up, down, left or right.
- Drag back along a tube to shorten it. Drawing across another tube cuts it, and it grows back if you pull away again in the same stroke.
- Short white bars are walls: tubes cannot pass between the two cells they separate.
- Link every pair and fill every cell to light up the board. Draw each tube in one stroke for three stars.
About Connect the Dots
Connect the Dots is a path-drawing logic puzzle set on a quiet night street. Pairs of colored lamps are scattered across a square grid, and your job is to join each lamp to its twin with a glowing glass tube. Tubes run only up, down, left and right, they can never cross or share a cell, and the board is only finished when every single cell carries a tube. That last rule is what turns a simple drawing game into real logic: a short, direct line between two lamps often leaves a pocket of cells that no other tube can reach, so the right answer is frequently the long way round. Every lamp also carries its own symbol, so you can tell the pairs apart without relying on color. The first boards are four cells wide and take seconds; by the last chapter you are routing nine tubes through a nine by nine grid crossed by short walls that tubes cannot pass through. Every board is built from a finished answer, so a full solution always exists.
Controls
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Drag | Draw a tube from a lamp or from the end of a tube |
| Arrow keys | Move the cursor, or extend the tube you are holding |
| Space or Enter | Pick up a tube at the cursor, then put it down |
| U or undo | Take back the last stroke |
| H or the bulb | Lay one tube from the answer (costs a star) (3 per level) |
Tips and strategy
- Start at the edges. A lamp in a corner or along the border has only two or three ways out, so its tube is usually forced to hug the wall.
- Join the close pairs last. Two lamps next to each other look easy, but their tube often has to wander to fill a gap that no other color can reach.
- Follow the walls. In the later chapters a wall closes off a corridor; any lamp inside that corridor must leave through its open end.
- Watch for dead ends. An empty cell with only one open neighbor must be the end of a tube or the middle of a turn, so plan a tube to pass through it.
- Fill pockets with the nearest long tube. When a row of empty cells is left over, reroute the closest tube to snake through it rather than starting again.
- Plan before you draw. Three stars need one stroke per pair, so trace the route with your eyes first and then draw it in one go.
Questions and answers
What kind of puzzle is Connect the Dots?
A connect the colors puzzle, sometimes called a number link or flow puzzle. You join pairs of matching points with paths that never cross, and in Connect the Dots every cell of the grid must be used.
Is there always a solution?
Yes. Each board is made from a finished answer: one long path through every cell is cut into pieces, and the ends of each piece become a pair of lamps. You may also find a different answer, which counts just the same.
What are the white bars?
Walls. From the third chapter some cell edges are blocked, and no tube can pass between the two cells a wall separates.
How are stars awarded?
Draw each tube in a single stroke for three stars. Up to three extra strokes earns two stars, and any finish earns one. A hint lays one tube from the answer and costs a star.
Can I tell the colors apart if I am color blind?
Yes. Every pair of lamps also carries its own symbol, such as a circle, square, triangle or star, so pairs can be matched by shape alone.
Do I need an account?
No. Connect the Dots runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, and your stars and unlocked night themes are saved on your device.
