Tango is the most elegantly minimal game in LinkedIn's lineup: a 6×6 grid, two symbols, two rules. Sun (☀️) or moon (🌙) — every cell is one of them. The simplicity is a trap, though: those two rules interact in ways that can stall even experienced solvers. Here is how the game works and how to get faster at it.
The two rules
- Balance. Every row and every column contains exactly three suns and three moons.
- No triples. No more than two identical symbols may sit next to each other in a line — horizontally or vertically.
That is the whole game. There are no regions, no numbers, no diagonals. Everything you deduce comes from counting to three and watching for runs.
Tip 1: Complete the count first
If a row already shows three suns, every empty cell in that row is a moon. If a row shows two suns and one moon with three cells left, it needs exactly one more sun. Write the counts in your head (or pencil them in): the balance rule alone solves several cells in almost every puzzle.
Check columns the same way. A cell where both its row count and column count point to the same symbol is locked.
Tip 2: Break the triples early
Whenever two identical symbols sit side by side, the cells directly beyond that pair — on both ends of the line — must hold the opposite symbol. This is the single most productive deduction in Tango:
☀️ ☀️ ⬜ → the blank must be 🌙.
Scan the whole grid for adjacent pairs at the start. Each pair you extend turns into one or two guaranteed cells.
Tip 3: Use the pair rule in both directions
The no-triple rule also tells you what cannot happen: a row that begins 🌙 🌙 ☀️ must continue with a pattern that never produces three in a row. When a row is nearly full, test the two possible endings — usually one of them creates a triple and dies immediately.
Tip 4: Work the intersections
The strongest cells are intersections: a cell whose row needs exactly one more sun and whose column already has three suns is forced to be a moon. When you stall, stop looking at rows and columns separately and examine the cells where their counts disagree.
Tip 5: Finish with the last-symbol count
Near the end, most mistakes come from a miscount rather than a hard deduction. Before submitting, count each row and each column: three and three. If any line has four of a kind, retrace the last few placements.
Why Tango feels fast — and why it sometimes isn't
On easy days the puzzle cascades: one pair forces a cell, that cell completes a count, and the board fills in minutes. On harder days, the opening pairs are sparse and you need several count-based deductions before anything clicks. That is normal — Tango's difficulty is almost entirely about how many independent starting points the puzzle gives you.
When a puzzle fights back, our daily Tango answer page shows the complete grid together with an explanation of a plausible solving path, and the Tango archives give you unlimited past puzzles to drill the patterns.
Two rules, one clean grid, a new puzzle every day — Tango is the best five-minute logic habit on LinkedIn.