Weekly Quest · Prepare
The 24-Hour Light Plan
The 24-Hour Light Plan is a 45-minute family quest that turns a simple question into a genuine household discovery: how would your family keep the lights on if the grid went quiet for a day? Completed inside the Outside app, it builds real energy-planning know-how while giving everyone a shared mission they will actually enjoy. Week 30 of the 52-week quest calendar, it earns the Light Keeper badge and 300 XP.
This page is the public web guide for The 24-Hour Light Plan, Week 30 of Outside's 52-week family quest calendar, published by Outside, the family adventure app. The quest challenges families to figure out how they would light their home for 24 hours without grid power, completing the experience in roughly 45 minutes at an Easy difficulty level. Families earn 300 XP and the Light Keeper badge by working through the quest steps inside the Outside app. The guide covers how to run the quest well, age-by-age tips, and what practical skills families build along the way.
| XP | 300 |
|---|---|
| Week | 30 of 52 |
| Badge | Light Keeper |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Estimated time | 45 minutes |
Why this quest is worth an afternoon
Most families own more light sources than they realize. Flashlights in junk drawers, candles on a shelf, a lantern from a camping trip three summers ago. The 24-Hour Light Plan asks a simple, energizing question: if the power went out tonight and stayed out until tomorrow morning, could your family keep things bright enough to cook dinner, read a book, and put the little ones to bed safely?
This quest is not about worst-case thinking. It is about the pleasure of solving a real puzzle together, the kind where every family member has something useful to contribute. Kids find the flashlights. Parents do the math on battery hours. Someone discovers that the back porch catches more evening sun than anyone had noticed. That is the whole point.
How to run the quest well
Start inside the Outside app, where you will find the official quest steps for quest-30. Before you do anything else, gather the family and talk about what you hope to find out. Keep it loose. The goal is curiosity, not a drill.
Then move through the house together. Count every light source you can locate: flashlights, headlamps, candles, battery-powered lanterns, solar garden lights from the yard, the camping gear in the garage. Write down what you find, note roughly how many hours each source can run, and start sketching a simple plan for covering the evening and overnight hours. Outside time counts here too. Walk the yard and see which windows and outdoor spaces catch good natural light and for how long. That firsthand observation is worth more than any chart.
Making it work for every age
**Ages 4 to 6:** Give the youngest kids one clear job: find every flashlight in the house and bring them to the kitchen table. The hunt itself is the adventure, and they will feel genuinely proud when the pile grows.
**Ages 7 to 10:** This age group is ready to test. Turn off the overhead lights in one room and spend ten minutes using only what you have found. Notice what is bright enough to read by and what is not.
**Ages 11 to 14:** Older kids can take on the planning side. Ask them to build a simple hour-by-hour schedule: what light source covers dinner, what covers homework hour, what goes in each bedroom overnight. They can also research whether any of your devices can charge from a car outlet or a small battery bank, adding a layer of real-world problem-solving to the afternoon.
What your family walks away with
The Light Keeper badge is the official reward, along with 300 XP toward your family's progress in the Outside app. But the practical takeaway is just as good. Most families finish this quest knowing exactly where their light sources are, roughly how long they will last, and what one or two things they might want to pick up next time they are at the hardware store. That knowledge sits quietly in the background, ready when it is actually useful.
Families also tend to walk away with a memory. The room-goes-dark test always produces a moment of laughter or surprise. The hunt through the garage turns up something forgotten. Those are the small, vivid details that make a Wednesday afternoon stand out.
Capturing and sharing the experience
Before the quest wraps up, the Outside app will ask you to capture a photo or a feeling from the afternoon. A snapshot of the flashlight collection on the kitchen table works well. So does a photo of the yard at the hour when natural light starts to fade, which families often find unexpectedly beautiful.
The in-app reflection prompt asks: what was your favorite moment of this adventure? Encourage every family member to answer, even briefly. The youngest kids often land on the best answers. Save those responses in the app. Flipping back to them months later, when your family is deep into a different week's quest, is one of the quiet rewards of staying with the 52-week calendar.
Draw or write a simple map of your home and mark every light source your family found today. Which one surprised you most, and why?
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to buy anything before doing this quest?
No purchases are required. The whole point of the quest is to see what your family already has on hand. Comfortable shoes and a water bottle are listed as supplies because you will likely move through the house and yard, but nothing needs to be bought in advance. If the quest reveals a gap in your light sources, that is useful information you can act on later, at your own pace.
How do we complete this quest in the Outside app?
Open the Outside app and find quest-30, The 24-Hour Light Plan, in the Week 30 slot of the quest calendar. The app walks you through each step in order: the opening conversation, the hands-on exploration, the moment of noticing something new, and the final capture and reflection. Your XP and the Light Keeper badge are awarded automatically once you mark the quest complete inside the app.
What if our kids lose interest partway through?
The flashlight-hunt portion reliably holds younger kids' attention, so start there and let the energy build naturally. If older kids start to drift, give them the room-goes-dark test early. Ten minutes of navigating a darkened kitchen by lamplight tends to pull everyone back in. The quest is designed to flex, so there is no wrong order. Follow what is working.
Can we do this quest in an apartment with no yard?
Absolutely. The yard walk is one option for observing natural light, but apartments often have windows with interesting light patterns worth mapping. Walk each room at different times of the afternoon and notice which spaces stay bright longest. Balconies, stairwells, and even a well-placed mirror count as part of your light inventory. The core question works in any home.