Arcade guide

Stakeout

Place six lookouts using logic, not speed. Each row, column and lettered zone needs exactly one, and no two lookouts may touch.

Free early-preview gameA daily deduction puzzle with cosmetic rewards

No cash prize or paid entry. Learn, practice and archive boards do not award daily rewards.

The three rules

Place exactly one lookout in each of the six rows and each of the six columns.
Place exactly one in each lettered zone. Letters identify the zones, so colour is not the only cue.
No two lookouts can touch, including corner-to-corner diagonals.

Your completed board contains six lookouts satisfying all three rules at once. A plausible-looking placement is not enough if it leaves another row, column or zone with no legal option.

Start with Learn, then try Daily

Open Arcade and choose Stakeout. Learn introduces the rules through six guided exercises and two blank practice boards. Daily is the current UTC day's puzzle. Previous boards remain available in the archive.

Tap a cell to place or remove a lookout. Pencil marks record eliminated candidates without placing a lookout. Undo lets you revisit a decision. Reset requires an in-app confirmation; cancelling leaves your board unchanged. With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move and Enter or Space to act.

There is no countdown. Saved progress lets you pause and come back to the same board.

Make deductions one constraint at a time

After placing a lookout, eliminate every other cell in its row, column and zone, plus its touching neighbours. Next, scan each unresolved row, column and zone. If just one candidate remains, it is forced. Repeat this process after every new placement.

Example: a lookout in row 2, column 3 rules out column 3 in every other row. It also rules out columns 2 and 4 in rows 1 and 3 because those cells touch diagonally. Apply the zone rule as well before deciding where the next lookout belongs.

A six-by-six grid with a lookout at row 2, column 3. Crosses mark the other cells in its row and column, plus its four diagonal neighbours, for fourteen excluded cells. — This rule example shows row, column and touching exclusions. It is not a daily solution. Lettered zones add their own exclusions, which are not shown here. An unmarked cell is still only a candidate, not a guaranteed correct placement.

There is another useful pattern: if every remaining candidate for a zone is in one row, that zone's lookout must occupy that row. Candidates outside the zone in the same row can be eliminated. The same reasoning works for columns.

Pencil marks make these deductions easier to track. If you reach a contradiction, undo to the last uncertain move rather than filling the remaining cells at random. Learn boards are a useful place to practise the rules without affecting daily rewards.

Daily rewards, explained

The first successful completion of the current UTC-day board earns 50 cosmetic XP and five whole Tickets. The service verifies the board and prevents duplicate claims. A repeat completion, Learn exercise, practice board or archive board earns no additional daily reward.

If a saved board becomes an archive board before you finish, completing it does not earn the new day's reward. Resetting or replaying a solved board cannot claim another award.

Tickets share a wallet with Stack Job and can unlock private-vault decorations in the earned-Ticket shop. Stakeout XP is separate from Stack Job's mastery progress. These rewards are not cash, LP coins, seeks, clues or an improvement to your hunt odds. See the complete game guide for the wider simulation.

Comfort and help

Use pencil marks and keyboard controls if they suit you better than direct touch. Optional haptics depend on your device; reduced-motion preferences are respected. If a board, save or claim fails, report what happened without sending a password or sign-in link.

Prefer a block-placement challenge? Read the Stack Job guide.