Follow the Lights: watch the lights, then repeat the pattern
Follow the Lights is a repeat-the-pattern game. Nine numbered pads sit in a 3-by-3 grid. A few of them light up, one at a time, and then it's your turn to tap the same pads in the same order. A game has 5 patterns, and they grow a little as you go. Try a round right here, free.
Play a free round of Follow the Lights
Watch the pattern, then repeat it. No sign-up, and speed never counts.
How to play
- Tap Show me the lights. Nothing flashes until you do, so a pattern never starts while you're looking away.
- Watch the pads light up one at a time. The same pad never lights twice in a row.
- When the game says "Your turn — tap them in order", tap the pads in the order they lit.
There's no clock while you tap. Get the whole pattern and you'll see "✓ Perfect!", then the button for the next pattern. If a tap is wrong, that pattern stops there. The game tells you how far you got (for example, "you got 2 of 4"), plays the right order once more, and waits for you to tap Next.
Numbers, colors and sound
Every pad has a number from 1 to 9, its own place on the grid and its own color, so you can follow a pattern by any of the three. The numbers run like a phone keypad: 1, 2, 3 across the top and 7, 8, 9 across the bottom. When a pad lights up, it turns its full color, grows a little and gets a bold outline. A lit pad shows its number in white, except the yellow one, which keeps a dark number so it stays easy to read.
The lights make no sound of their own. The game plays a short tone after each right or wrong pattern, and members can turn sounds off with Sounds and vibration in Account → Settings.
How long the patterns get
| Level | Lights in the 5 patterns |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 |
| 2 | 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 |
| 3 | 4, 4, 5, 5, 6 |
| 4 | 5, 5, 6, 6, 7 |
| 5 | 6, 6, 7, 7, 8 |
The free round above is Level 2: it starts with 3 lights and ends with 5.
Played slowly
In relaxed mode each light stays on for 0.9 seconds, with a short pause before the next, and the replay after a slip runs at the same pace. The free round always plays this way, and so does the app unless a member turns relaxed mode off in Account → Settings. With it off, each light stays on for 0.65 seconds.
A worked example
Say a Level 2 pattern lights 6, then 2, then 9. Tap 6, 2, 9. You can say the numbers to yourself as they light ("six, two, nine"), or watch the path the light takes: right side, top middle, bottom-right corner. Use whichever comes naturally.
A Level 3 pattern might be 1, 5, 9, 4. The first three run corner to corner down the diagonal, then the light jumps back to the left side.
Scoring
Each pattern scores the share you tapped right before any slip: all 4 of 4 counts as a whole pattern, 3 of 4 as three quarters. Your score out of 100 is the average of the 5 patterns. At Level 2, three perfect patterns followed by 3 of 4 and 4 of 5 score 91.
Speed never counts in this game, whether relaxed mode is on or off.
Questions about Follow the Lights
Can the same pad light up more than once?
Yes, but never twice in a row. In a longer pattern a pad can come back later, as in 3, 7, 3, 1.
Can I watch the pattern again before my turn?
No. Each pattern plays once before your turn. If you slip, the game plays the right order again before you move on.
Does the board change between patterns?
No. The nine pads keep their places, numbers and colors for the whole game. Only the pattern changes.
For a pattern you work out at your own pace instead of watching, What Comes Next? is the one to try. The games page lists all 12.