Fill a grid with towers of different heights so the clues around the edge see exactly the right number of roofs.
Skyscraper Sightlines asks you to plan a tiny city by looking at it from the outside. One tower goes on each square of the grid. The numbers around the outside tell you how many rooftops a person standing at that spot would be able to see. The board is drawn in a neat 3D style, and every puzzle it creates has exactly one solution.
Rules in brief
On a 5x5 grid, towers come in heights 1 to 5. Every row needs each height exactly once, and so does every column, a bit like a Latin square.
The clues on the border add the twist. Looking in from a clue along its row or column, count each tower that is taller than all the ones before it. Shorter towers hidden behind taller ones do not count. Picture a row reading 3, 1, 2, 5, 4 from left to right. Looking in from the left, you spot the 3 and the 5, so that clue would be 2. From the right, you see the 4 and then the 5, which also makes 2.
Getting started
Select any empty square and enter a number to place a tower of that height. If you are still deciding, jot small candidate numbers in the square, then delete them one by one as the logic rules them out. Pressing M fills every empty square with all possible marks at once, which is a handy way to begin. Mistakes like a repeated height show up in red, and the whole board flashes once you have it right.
Tougher settings and bigger boards sometimes start with a few towers already standing and some border clues missing. You cannot move those given towers, and there is still just one valid solution.
Strategy notes
- A clue of 1 means the tallest tower sits right next to it.
- When a clue matches the size of the grid, that line must climb 1, 2, 3 and so on in order, so you can fill it in completely.
- On a 5x5 board, the square next to a 2 cannot be a 5. A 5 there would block the view of everything behind it.
- As a general rule, for a grid of size N, the square touching a clue c has a maximum height of N + 1 - c.
- Click a clue you have finished with to grey it out, so your eyes go to the ones that still matter.
Sizes and difficulty
Preset sizes in the Type menu run from 4x4 through 6x6, paired with difficulty settings that start at Easy and climb to Unreasonable. A Custom option lets you go as small as 3x3 or as large as 9x9.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build a tower | Arrow keys to pick a square, then type its height | Click a square, then type a digit | Tap a square, then tap a digit button |
| Add or remove a pencil mark | Enter switches the cursor to pencil mode, then type a digit | Right-click a square, then type a digit | Set Tap to Pencil mark (or press and hold a square), then tap a digit |
| Clear a square | Space, Backspace or 0 | — | Tap the square, then Clear |
| Fill every empty square with all pencil marks | M | — | — |
| Grey out a clue you have finished with | — | Click the clue | Tap the clue |
| New game, undo, redo | N, U, R | Menu buttons above the grid | Menu buttons above the grid |
Skyscraper Sightlines FAQ
Can I play Skyscraper Sightlines on a phone or Chromebook?
Yes. On a phone or tablet, tap a square and then a digit button in the bar under the grid. That bar also has a toggle for pencil marks. A long press on a square does the same job. On a Chromebook, use the arrow keys and type a number.
Is it one player?
Yes. It is a solo logic puzzle with no timer and no opponent. Every generated board has exactly one answer, and you can always reach it by reasoning alone, so there is no need to guess.
What happens when I make a mistake?
Errors such as a repeated height in a row or a clue that cannot be satisfied are shown in red. Undo and redo have no limit, so you can step back to a safe point. A Solve button shows the full answer, and you can undo that too.
Can I turn off the 3D look?
Yes. In the Game menu, open Preferences and pick the flat 2D view. Each tower is then drawn as a simple digit, which can be quicker to scan when your screen is small.
