New to Skyscrapers? Learn the two rules on a 5×5, then get used to reading clues: a 1 puts the tallest building next to it, a clue as big as the grid climbs one step at a time, and any clue keeps the tall buildings away from its end. This page puts the guides in that order, with a six-row warm-up to check yourself before you move up a size.
Your path, in order
- Learn the rules. The Skyscrapers rules page solves the game’s first level step by step. The one idea to take away: each height once in every row and column, and each clue counts the buildings you can see.
- Find the clues of 1 and the full clues first.
- Count rows and columns as in Sudoku: one height left, one place left.
- Keep the tall buildings away from big clues.
- Do the warm-up below. Six rows, each practising an idea from the guides.
- Learn the other techniques. How to solve Skyscrapers covers all six.
- When a puzzle goes wrong, read the six common mistakes. The big one is placing a height before it’s certain.
- Move up a size when you’re ready (see below).
Warm-up: six rows
Each is a single row with its clues, so it holds each height once: 1 to 4 in a row of four, 1 to 5 in a row of five. Work out what you can be sure of, then open the answer. Every answer is everything that row can tell you on its own.
1. A clue of 1
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Square 1 is 4: only the first building shows, so it’s the tallest. The other three could go any way round.
2. A clue of 4
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1, 2, 3, 4. All four show, so each is taller than the last.
3. Two and one
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Square 4 is 4, from the clue of 1 on the right. From the left you see two: the first building and the 4. So the first building hides the two between it and the 4: it’s the 3. Squares 2 and 3 are 1 and 2, either way round.
4. Three and two
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Square 3 is 4. Seeing three from the left keeps the 4 out of squares 1 and 2. Seeing two from the right keeps it out of square 4, since a 4 there would hide everything behind it. The rest can go more than one way.
5. Three from both ends
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Square 3 is 5. A clue of 3 keeps the 5 at least two squares from its end, and with clues of 3 at both ends of a row of five, only the middle square is that far from both.
6. Four, with a 2 in the middle
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5, 4, 2, 3, 1. To see four of the five from the right, only one building can be hidden. The 2 can’t be seen: two buildings stand in front of it from that side, and only the 1 is shorter. So the 2 is the hidden one, and the other four climb from the right: 1, 3, 4, 5.
When to move up a size
You’re ready for Medium (6×6) when you can finish Easy levels without guessing, and you read every clue for where the tallest building can’t be. The bigger grids lean on listing a line’s arrangements: about 5 times per Easy level, 9 per Medium and 11 per Hard. On Hard (7×7), every level also needs what-if.