Sudoku and LITS are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: LITS is distant to Sudoku. Below we lay out what the two share, where they part ways, and whether the skills you have built on Sudoku will carry over.
- Grid: Rooms grid
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
What is LITS?
Shade one tetromino in every region so all shaded cells connect, no 2×2 is filled, and touching tetrominoes are never the same shape. Here are the rules in full:
- In each region shade exactly four connected cells forming an L, I, T or S tetromino.
- All shaded cells across the grid connect into one group with no 2×2 fully shaded.
- Two tetrominoes of the same shape (rotations and reflections count) may not share an edge.
See a LITS region
LITS asks you to shade exactly one tetromino - an L, I, T or S shape - in each region, so all shaded cells connect, no 2×2 is filled, and touching tetrominoes are never the same shape. Below, an L-tetromino shaded inside one region.
One L-tetromino (four shaded cells) placed inside a region.
Both carve the grid into regions and reason under strict local rules, and the "same shape can't touch" rule rhymes with Sudoku's no-repeat neighbours. But you shade tetrominoes rather than place digits, and connectivity and the no-2×2 rule have no Sudoku equivalent - a distant relative.
What LITS shares with Sudoku
- Both carve the grid into regions and reason under strict local rules.
- The "same shape can't touch" rule rhymes with Sudoku's no-repeat neighbours.
How LITS differs from Sudoku
- You shade tetrominoes, not place digits, and most cells stay empty.
- Connectivity and the no-2×2 rule have no Sudoku equivalent.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
No digit technique applies, but the case-by-case "which shapes fit here, and which are ruled out?" reasoning is close cousin to candidate elimination.
The verdict
LITS shares Sudoku's region logic and no-touch instinct but builds a tetromino mosaic, not a number grid.
Where to play it
If it was Sudoku you came for, the level is the choice that matters more than the variant - LITS and Sudoku part ways on the rules, but a Sudoku grid can be a two-minute warm-up or an hour of work depending on nothing but how much of it you are given.
Difficulty and type are two separate dials here: the type sets the extra rule, the level sets how much of the grid you start with. Easy Sudoku leaves 36 of the 81 cells filled, so there is always an obvious next move somewhere; Evil Sudoku leaves 23, with no easy moves at all. Take it at the gentler end while the pattern is still new, and move up once it stops being a fight.