Patches is the most visual game in LinkedIn's lineup. Instead of symbols and constraints, you get a board and a set of scattered patches — and your job is to drag every patch onto the board so the hidden picture is rebuilt, with edges and colors matching perfectly. Daily puzzles typically come with around six to ten patches on a square board. It feels like a jigsaw, and the techniques that work are jigsaw techniques too.
How the game works
- You are given a grid board (commonly 6×6, sometimes larger) and a tray of patches.
- Each patch is a piece of the final picture.
- Place all patches onto the board so the complete image is reconstructed.
- Patches fit together by matching their edges — colors, lines, and shapes continue across patch borders.
There is exactly one correct arrangement. Every patch belongs somewhere, and nothing is left over.
Strategy 1: Edges and corners first
The classic jigsaw move is the strongest play in Patches too. Border patches have flat edges or a distinctive cutoff on one side, which immediately tells you they belong on the boundary — and often exactly which boundary.
- Find every patch with a straight or clearly finished edge.
- Build the frame of the picture first.
- Fill inward.
A completed frame shrinks the problem: instead of placing patches "somewhere on the board", every remaining patch now sits inside a known border.
Strategy 2: Group by dominant color
Before placing anything, mentally sort the patches by dominant color or pattern: sky, foliage, object, background. A patch that is almost entirely one color almost always belongs to that color's region — and regions with unusual colors (a bright object against a muted background) are the easiest to anchor.
Strategy 3: Follow the lines
Pictures in Patches are drawn with lines that cross patch borders. When two patches clearly continue the same line or curve, they are neighbours — even if you do not yet know where the pair sits. Chain these relationships: patch A continues a line into patch B, and B's other edge continues into C. These mini-chains snap into place as a unit.
Strategy 4: Save the ambiguous patches for last
Patches of uniform color — plain sky, plain water — are the hardest to place and the easiest to place wrong. Leave them until the distinctive patches are down. By then each ambiguous patch has only one remaining hole that fits its shape, and the placement becomes forced.
When the last pieces won't fit
If a late patch refuses every remaining slot, one of your earlier placements is wrong — usually an ambiguous same-color patch placed by guess. The fix:
- Identify the misplaced region (the one whose shape or color flow looks slightly off).
- Swap candidates within that region only.
- Re-check edge continuity across every border you touched.
Because the solution is unique, "looks almost right" is a reliable tell that exactly one patch is one slot away from home.
Why Patches is worth your daily five minutes
Patches exercises a different skill from the rest of the lineup: holistic visual matching instead of symbolic deduction. Players who only do logic games often find it the hardest at first — and the most relaxing once the edge-first habit clicks.
You can see today's completed board on our daily Patches answer page, and every past puzzle — with its solved image — lives in the Patches archives. Comparing your placement order against the finished picture is the fastest way to calibrate your eye.
Frame first, colors second, ambiguous last — the picture assembles itself.