Paint Hide: how to blend in and beat the seekers

Use the grace seconds to choose a spot

Every level starts with a few seconds of grace while the seekers count with their eyes shut. That is your only free movement, so don't spend it wandering. Decide where you are going before the level begins and run straight there.

The best patch is a big, steady one, away from the patches that blink. A large patch gives you room to stay inside it, and a steady one means you won't have to repaint in the middle of a sweep. Edges between two patches are a trap: if part of you sits on the wrong colour, you are no longer blending in.

On the first yard there are just two colours and one seeker, and a hand shows you which pot to tap. Treat that level as practice for the whole rhythm of the game: walk, paint, freeze.

Paint, then freeze

Once you're standing on a patch, tap the paint pot under the yard that matches the floor beneath you. On a keyboard the pots are the number keys 1 to 6, so you can paint without looking away from the yard. Walk with the arrow keys or WASD, or drag anywhere on a touch screen and a stick appears under your finger.

Then stop. A seeker notices you in only two cases: your colour differs from the patch under you, or you are moving. A chameleon that is painted correctly and perfectly still is invisible even when a torch beam passes right over it.

The common mistake is moving at the wrong moment. Even with the right colour, a step while a beam is on you gives you away. If you need to change position, do it when the beam is pointing elsewhere, and finish painting before the next sweep arrives.

Watch the seekers before you commit

Seekers don't all behave the same way. Some walk their rounds across the yard, and others stand in place and sweep their beams from side to side. Spend a second or two of the grace time reading which is which, and think about where each beam will be in a few seconds, not where it is right now.

A good hiding spot is one the beams reach rarely or briefly. If a seeker's round takes it straight over a patch, that patch will get a lot of beam time, and every pass is a chance to be noticed. A patch at the edge of a round gives you longer gaps between passes.

The more seekers a yard has, the more important this becomes. Later levels add more of them, so reading their pattern early is a habit worth building on the easy yards.

Hide behind crates

Crates block the beams completely. A torch can't shine through one, so a patch tucked behind a crate is safe from every beam on that side. This is the closest thing the game has to a guaranteed hiding place, and it is worth running to a crate even if the nearest open patch looks tempting.

Combine the two ideas. A steady patch that sits behind a crate, away from the seekers' rounds, is the ideal spot on almost any yard. When the choice is between a patch in the open and a patch behind cover, take the cover.

Handle blinking patches

Later yards bring patches that blink from one colour to the next every few seconds. If you sit on one, your colour stops matching the floor the moment it changes, and then a beam that finds you has a reason to stop.

You have two sensible answers. Either avoid blinking patches entirely and pick a steady one, or watch the blink rhythm and repaint in time, tapping the new pot as soon as the patch changes. If you sit on a blinking patch and a beam is about to cross it, it's safer to walk to the next patch between sweeps than to gamble on a repaint.

The default should be to stay off them. Blinking patches are useful mainly as places you leave, not places you stay.

Stars, rescue videos and what else to play

Stars are for close calls: finish a level without a seeker ever getting suspicious and you earn all three. That rewards the cautious play described above, with a steady patch, cover and no unnecessary movement. The leaderboard ranks the best hiders, and your level and stars are saved in the browser.

If you are found, a short video lets you keep hiding once per level, with a couple of seconds of safety. After a win, a video buys a longer head start for the next level. Both are optional, and the first is best saved for the yards where the clock is nearly out.

If you enjoy sneaking past things that can see you, Egg Heist on crokocat is a farmyard puzzle where you play a fox slipping through hedges and out of the dogs' cones of sight. The skills carry over: read the patrols, use cover and don't linger where you can be seen.

Egg HeistSneak past the dogs, steal every eggPlay now

Frequently asked questions

Guides & tips

• Hide-and-seek puzzle games: how stealth games where you hide actually work
• Steal and run games: alternatives to Steal a Brainrot and Egg Thief you can play in a browser
• Egg Heist tips: how to sneak past the dogs and bring every egg home

Play it here

• Paint Hide — Paint yourself, blend in, hide from the seekers
• Egg Heist — Sneak past the dogs, steal every egg