Signal Lamps: the chase method for every panel
Updated September 24, 2026. Figures come from the live game.
The short answer
Tapping a lamp flips it and its four neighbours; light every lamp. Chase the dark lamps down the panel row by row, then fix the last row with the top-row pattern from the table. Par is the true minimum, and each lamp needs at most one tap.
What Signal Lamps decides
Signal Lamps is the puzzle behind every Watchtower build and upgrade, and every road gate upgrade. Builds play at your Signal Lamps skill; upgrades play at your skill plus the level you're building. The grade sets the time and the building's quality for good.
The rules
- Tapping a lamp flips it and the lamps directly above, below, left and right of it.
- The panel is solved when every lamp is lit.
- From level 12, rusted lamps appear. They stay lit, can't be tapped, and aren't flipped by their neighbours. Taps on them don't count.
- Every panel is scrambled from a lit one, so it can always be solved.
A 5 × 5 panel at level 12, with one rusted lamp.
- A rusted lamp: always lit, can't be tapped, never flipped by a neighbour
- A dark lamp: tap it or a neighbour to flip it
- Par: the fewest taps that light the whole panel
How it's scored
| Part | Points | How to max it |
|---|---|---|
| Solved | 600 | Any solved run is at least a B. |
| Taps | Up to 250 | Full marks at par or better; more than par scales it down. |
| Time | Up to 150 | Full marks within 3 seconds plus 1.2 seconds per par tap. It falls to 0 at four times that. |
- Par is the true minimum number of taps for that panel.
- From level 20 there is a tap budget: par plus a little slack. Go over it and the run is unsolved.
- Tap faster than 120 ms per tap on average and the run counts as unsolved.
| Skill level | Panel | Rusted lamps | Tap budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | 3 × 3 | 0 | None |
| 5–9 | 4 × 4 | 0 | None |
| 10–11 | 5 × 5 | 0 | None |
| 12–15 | 5 × 5 | 1 | None |
| 16–19 | 6 × 6 | 2 | None |
| 20–22 | 6 × 6 | 3 | Par + 6 |
| 23–30 | 7 × 7 | 3 to 5 | Par + 3 to 5 |
The chase method
- Start with the top row. For every dark lamp in it, tap the lamp directly below it. The top row is now fully lit.
- Move down one row and repeat: for each dark lamp, tap the lamp below. Carry on to the second-to-last row.
- Now only the bottom row can have dark lamps. Find its pattern in the table below and tap those lamps in the top row.
- Chase again from the top. The panel finishes lit.
| Bottom row still dark | Tap in the top row |
|---|---|
| X X X . . | . . X X . |
| X X . X X | . . X . . |
| X . X X . | . . . . X |
| X . . . X | . . . X X |
| . X X . X | . . X . X |
| . X . X . | . . X X X |
| . . X X X | . . . X . |
| Bottom row still dark | Tap in the top row |
|---|---|
| X X X | . X . |
| X X . | . . X |
| X . X | X . X |
| X . . | X X . |
| . X X | X . . |
| . X . | X X X |
| . . X | . X X |
On a 4 × 4 panel the chase alone always finishes the job. On 6 × 6 and 7 × 7 panels there are too many bottom-row patterns for a table. Each top-row lamp always changes the bottom row the same way after a chase, so learn what one tap does, then combine taps until they cancel the dark lamps. Rusted lamps break the tables, so from level 12 plan around them.
Questions players ask
What does Signal Lamps gate in Voxhorde?
Watchtower builds and upgrades, and road gate upgrades.
What are rusted lamps?
From level 12, one to five lamps are rusted. They stay lit, can't be tapped, and ignore taps on their neighbours.
Is Signal Lamps the same as Lights Out?
Yes, with the goal flipped: you light every lamp instead of switching them off. The chase method works the same way.