Orbit: a calm ring-spinning light puzzle

Orbit is a quiet puzzle made of concentric rings. A light sits at the hub in the middle, and around it sit rings of broken track: short arcs that curve with the ring, and little half-spokes that reach inward and outward. Every ring has been turned the wrong way, so the track is a scattered tangle and the light has nowhere to go. Your job is to spin the rings, one at a time, until the half-spokes meet up and the light threads its way out from the hub to every bulb on the rim. When the last one lights, the whole board settles into a symmetric mandala. It is gentle, tidy and quietly satisfying, the kind of puzzle you can sink into for one level or twenty.

How to play

Drag any ring to spin it, or tap it to nudge it one step clockwise. Light flows out from the hub through every piece of track that lines up, glowing gold as it goes. Keep turning rings until the light has a clear path to each bulb.

• Spin: drag a ring round to turn it freely, or tap for a single step. The hub and the bulbs are fixed, so only the rings turn.
• Line it up exactly: a join only carries light when the ring is properly in true. Close is not enough, so a ring that looks slightly off really is off.
• Follow the light: live track glows gold and dark track stays grey, so you can always see how far the light has reached.
• Geared rings: from the third level on, some rings are linked by a dashed teal circle. Turn one and its partner turns the opposite way, so you cannot simply settle them one at a time.
• Undo or Restart: step back a turn, or reset the whole board, whenever you like.

Your progress is saved automatically, so you always pick up on the level where you left off.

Why it is clever

There is no guessing and no luck. Every board is built as a working pattern first and then scrambled, so a solution always exists, and you can watch the light creep outward as you close in on it. The trick is reading the rings: which arc feeds which branch, and the order to turn things so that fixing one ring does not undo another. Later boards add more rings, more positions to search and geared pairs that move together, so the same simple rule keeps producing harder, more tangled puzzles to unpick.

Tips

• Start at the hub and work outward, one ring at a time, following the light.
• Fix the innermost ring first. Everything further out depends on it.
• Watch the half-spokes rather than the arcs. Two half-spokes meeting is the thing that carries light.
• On a geared pair, look for the one position that satisfies both rings at once instead of settling for the better of the two.
• If a branch stays dark, trace back to the last glowing piece and look at the join just past it.

Frequently asked questions

Is Orbit free? Yes, completely free to play, with no account or download, in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop.

Does it work on mobile? Yes. Orbit is built for touch as well as mouse, so it plays the same on a phone as on a desktop.

How do I win? Spin the rings so light runs from the hub to every bulb on the rim. Once they are all lit, the level is solved.

Is every level solvable? Yes. Each board is generated as a working pattern and then scrambled by legal turns, so there is always a way back.

Enjoy a good thinking puzzle? Try Bloom, Fold or Untangle, or browse all Zamborin games.