Theme: Grouped Clues
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the cave segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:15, Expert = 8:30
Theme: Logic
Rules: Variation on Masyu and Battleships.
Normal Masyu rules. Also, all cells not in the loop must contain ships from the indicated Battleships fleet, and all ships must be placed. Ships cannot touch each other, even diagonally. All of the given clues are Masyu clues (and none are submarines).
Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a ship segment appears. If the row is empty, enter 0. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators. (This is normal Battleships answer entry.)
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00
Theme: Threes.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30
Last week’s puzzles are grouped together in this PDF. And no, there is no hidden puzzle in the names of these weekly files. I’m merely making the extensions unguessable since they are often up far in advance.
These are the puzzles coming this week (highlight to view):
Monday – Tapa by Palmer Mebane
Tuesday – Battleship/Masyu Hybrid by Grant Fikes
Wednesday – Cave by Thomas Snyder
Thursday – Thermo Sudoku by Thomas Snyder
Friday – Slitherlink (Domino) by Palmer Mebane
Saturday – Different Neighbors by Serkan Yürekli
and I promise no more than 2 Christmas trees this week!
I’m sure many of you were expecting ANOTHER version of the Christmas Tree puzzle from the last two weeks. I mean, I did get a very nice Double Back from Robert Vollmert (which cannot be confused as a Star Battle or a LITS). But posting such a puzzle wouldn’t be a surprise.
No, today’s Sunday Surprise comes from the pile of submissions I’ve received over the year from Hans van Stippent, who played with the usual rules of Skyscrapers a bit by hiding some of the cells from consideration. It yielded a very interesting puzzle which is Hans’ gift to you this Sunday.
Theme: New Variation/Logic
Rules: Standard Sudoku rules. Also, standard Skyscrapers rules. Additionally, the cells in grey are “underground” and cannot be seen for any of the outside skyscraper clues (think of them as starting with a negative sign if necessary). As an example, the 4 in row 2 refers only to seeing four buildings in columns 3 through 7, even if there is a 9 in column 1 or column 2 as that 9 cannot be seen.
Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 9th row from left to right.
(view image directly for a larger form)
Theme: Symmetry and logic.
Rules: Variation of standard Fillomino rules. All polyominoes of same size besides 4 cannot touch. But all tetrominoes must be connected to form a valid LITS solution. All 4 clues have been replaced by tetromino letters.
Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows, enter the area of the polyomino it belongs to. For the tetrominoes, instead of numbers use capital letters (L, I, T, S) in the appropriate cells. Start with the 10th column, followed by a comma, followed by the 14th column.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 12:30, Master = 18:00, Expert = 36:00
Theme: WPC Practice
Rules: Enter digits 1 through 4 into some cells so that each row and column contains each digit exactly once. Also, along the snail (from the upper-left corner and spiraling to the center) digits must occur in 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-… order. Some clues are given in the grid in the form of lit digital segments. Each of these cells must contain a digit, and that digit must have that segment lit in the form shown below the puzzle.
Or see an example from the WPC instructions using 1 to 3 here.
Answer String: Enter the marked rows from left to right, separating the two rows by a comma. Use an X (capital letter) for each empty square.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:00, Master = 8:30, Expert = 17:00
