Play Odd One Out Online Free — Solo or With Friends

How to Play

1. Pick a game type: Shapes, Shades or Turned. Then pick Easy, Medium or Hard.
2. Press Start. After a three-two-one countdown, the first grid appears.
3. Every picture in the grid is the same except one. Tap the one that is different.
4. A correct tap scores a point and a fresh grid pops up straight away, a touch harder than the last.
5. A wrong tap does not take away points, but it knocks three seconds off your clock. You will see "−3 s" float up.
6. When the 45 seconds run out, the odd item on the last grid lights up so you can see what you missed, and your total appears.

Rules

Your score is the number of odd items you find before time runs out. Higher is better. Each wrong tap costs three seconds, so guessing wildly drains the clock quickly. The grid starts at two by two and grows step by step to six by six, while the difference itself becomes smaller. On Easy the grid grows slowly and the gaps stay fairly generous; on Hard the grid fills up within a few screens and the changes become tiny. A solo run counts as a strong one at 18 found on Easy, 15 on Medium and 12 on Hard. In a game with friends, the biggest total wins and an exact tie is a draw. The clock stops while the rules drawer is open.

Tips & Strategy

• Look at the whole grid first. Take in all the pictures together. The odd one often jumps out before you start checking items one by one.
• Know what to hunt for. In Shapes, check the small details: points on a star, petals on a flower, dots on a die, the hands of a clock. In Shades, compare brightness. In Turned, watch the direction each item faces.
• Scan in rows on big grids. Once the grid reaches five by five, sweep left to right, row by row, rather than jumping about.
• Don't guess. Three seconds is roughly one whole screen at the start, so a careful extra second is cheaper than a wrong tap.
• Hold the phone still and close enough. On the six by six grids the pictures get small, so keep the screen steady.

Game Modes

Shapes changes one detail on one item: a star with a point fewer, a die with a dot missing, a clock showing a different time or a face with a different mouth. Shades uses identical shapes, and one of them is slightly lighter or darker. Turned shows identical arrows, letters or shoes, and one is rotated or flipped like a mirror image.

Playing solo is a score attack, and your best run is saved for each game type and level. With two players on one phone, the screen splits in half, with the top half turned round so you can sit facing each other. You both get exactly the same grids and race at the same time. With three to eight players, everyone takes a turn on the same phone, one after another, on the same grids, and the scoreboard fills in as each person finishes.

Play with Friends Online

Choose Play Online, create a room and share the link or code with your friends. Up to eight people can race together. When the host presses Start, every phone counts down at once and everybody sees the very same grids in the same order, so the race is fair. Live scores show how the others are getting on. If someone's internet drops halfway, the host's phone ends the race once the time is up, so nobody is kept waiting.