The "black dot" optical illusion that's breaking our brains.

Another year, another optical illusion set to boggle your mind and have you wondering if you need your eyesight tested.

This time, it’s an intricate grid of grey lines with 12 black dots appearing at various axis points.

The only problem, though, is that almost everyone is seeing a different number of black dots.

This isn’t a gif. Your eyes just can’t see all 12 back dots at the same time.

The riddling image first appeared on Imgur and then Reddit on Monday and wasted no time in going viral within hours.

According to the poster, djeclipz, four dots should appear horizontally on the top, middle and bottom rows. But for some reason, only one row can be focussed on at a time, with the other two disappearing.

Naturally, people got confused pretty quickly.

“It’s like playing whack-a-mole with your eyes,” one Redditor commented.

“What. The. Hell. Why does this work?! I went from straining to see four to seeing eight easily,” another wrote.

Remember this? Whose shorts are they anyway? Source: Imgur.

And for some, the exercise was just too bloody frustrating.

"Instructions unclear: popped out an eye and started hitting it with a mallet," one person commented.

"I've tried everything, and I can't discern any dots at all," another wrote, adding, "I've suffered multiple concussions in my life, and I'm honestly starting to question whether I have some sort of noticeably emerging brain damage."

Another one... the disappearing panda. Source: Imgur.

But for a few smart cookies, the solutions to seeing the dots was simple.

"Close one eye. Focus on each dot in sequence. Open both eyes. You can now see through the illusion," one Redditor instructed.

"Turn your head to the side. it breaks the illusion and you can see all the dots," another advised.

Simple it may be once solved, but a painful and dizzying point to get to nonetheless.