Sudoku by Thomas Snyder

Sudoku by Thomas Snyder

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Low to High

Author/Opus: This is the 421st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:20, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our most recent week of puzzles featuring Pentominoes is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature three Classic Sudoku puzzles and three variants.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our most recent week of LITS puzzles are gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More LITS puzzles can be found in our e-store here.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature puzzles involving pentominoes (and sometimes other shapes).

LITS by Thomas Snyder

LITS by Thomas Snyder

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a mode to mark edges with an X.)

Theme: Pentominoes

Author/Opus: This is the 420th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for more variations of LITS and this link for classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri, in The Art of Puzzles 2, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Sunday Update, Solutions, and New E-book

Our most recent week of Slitherlink puzzles are gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. We will have a challenging Sunday Stumper up soon by Matej Uher, and this week also marks the release of Slitherlink and Variations 2, a new e-book also by Matej Uher with 30 classic Slitherlink (including 1 giant) and 22 variations across 6 styles. Check out our store for details on all our Slitherlink collections.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

We’ve also recently uploaded a new version of Penpa-Edit (from 2.26.18 to 3.0.3) with several quality of life improvements. A big one (that we will highlight again in the future when we have an appropriate week) is that coloring of regions now works like drawing region boundaries for solution checking purposes in Fillomino, Pentominous, Araf, and other puzzles. As long as everything is colored (i.e., not white) and edge-adjacent regions are a different color, they are marked as implicit edges and compatible with checking. This update also includes some improvements to the top interface sizing that maintains the size (rather than moving up and down) when shifting between tools, better keyboard support for Sudoku movement in hex/cube modes, and several others described in the change history. Thanks to Swaroop and the other developers for these improvements.

This next week will feature LITS puzzles.

Slitherlink (Liar) by Thomas Snyder

Slitherlink (Liar) by Thomas Snyder

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to switch between edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s, and a shading and number entry mode to mark/update the liar clues.)

Theme: Bull’s-Eye

Author/Opus: This is the 419th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Variation of Slitherlink rules. Exactly one clue in each row and column is incorrect and must represent another number.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:45, Master = 13:30, Expert = 27:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for classic Slitherlink and this link for Slitherlink variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Slitherlink puzzles to get started on. More Slitherlink puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, Slitherlink and Variations, and our beginner-friendly book Logic Puzzles 101.

Sunday Update and Solutions

This week we crossed a milestone with over 2,500 puzzles posted on the web. Alongside this huge number, which has still never included a broken puzzle with 0 or more than 1 solutions, we finished posting solution PDFs for all of our earliest puzzles from 2013 so every web week now has solutions available. We also now have Penpa versions for almost every major style (2350+ puzzles) and mainly have one-off variations to still digitize. So by the time we hit our 10-year anniversary at the end of this year, our archive will be in great shape! If you’ve appreciated our content through the years, please consider buying some of our books (all with original puzzles) or making a donation to help support the site and our authors.

6 of our 2,500+ puzzles coming from this past week, which featured the number placement styles Smashed Sums and Terra X, are gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This next week will feature Slitherlink and variations, including a Sunday Stumper in one week’s time. Next Sunday we will also be releasing the new book Slitherlink and Variations 2 by Matej Uher, so look forward to a week+ of getting thrown for a loop.

Sunday Update, Solutions, and New Starter Pack book

We just released our latest Starter Pack book, Starter Pack 4: Slitherlink by Takeya Saikachi. Like our other Starter Packs, this book contains a great set of elegantly hand-crafted easy-to-medium difficulty puzzles to get started with some of our different puzzle genres. Slitherlink is a loop puzzle style with a lot of depth of logic stemming from its very simple rules, and we’ve featured it a lot on this site. Like our other Starter Packs, all of the puzzles in this book also have a penpa link for digital solving. This book is also the first time we have saved penpa “solving animations” for each puzzle, so you can watch step-by-step how someone can go through the puzzle to get to the final answer which may help solvers know where to look when they get stuck. We are planning to bring Penpa solving tools and these solution animations to more of our upcoming titles, so please share your feedback here.

The new Starter Pack book connects to our most recent “Starter Pack” variety mix week of puzzles which included a Slitherlink by Takeya. Those puzzles are is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

In the background we’ve been continuing our project to digitize our full puzzle archive for Penpa solution modes. All Sudoku puzzles of any type as well as all Skyscrapers puzzles have now been covered. This week we expect to finish Minesweeper and Battleships too. This will leave us with only a couple main genres and five “Other” categories to go to get nearly every puzzle in our soon-to-be ten year history available for solving in this mode.

This coming week features two different Number Placement styles that I often connect with the World Puzzle Championship: Smashed Sums (aka Doppelblock) and Terra X (which I first saw in 2019 at the last live WPC).

Sunday Update, Solutions, New Sudoku E-books, and More

We hope you really enjoyed Takeya Saikachi’s debut week of puzzles; the full week is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. Takeya is the author of our Starter Pack 4: Slitherlink, which will be released next Sunday, and we expect to see a lot more great contributions from this puzzlemaster in the future. This coming week will be another “Starter Pack” variety mix week including a Slitherlink puzzle by Takeya Saikachi like those in the book.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This weekend has also been a time to celebrate Sudoku. Currently running is the US round for the Sudoku Grand Prix, with 14 different puzzles by me that show off a lot of what sudoku can do. Please check out the competition if you haven’t had a chance to yet.

We also just released two new volumes in our Masterpiece Sudoku Mix series, #7 – Sudoku and #8 – Shape Sudoku, which continue to show what the best puzzlemakers can do with different Sudoku ideas. Purchase 2 or more MSM books and use the code MASTERPIECE to get a 10% discount at checkout.

Sunday Update and Solutions

Our past week of Sudoku puzzles and variations is gathered together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. You can find more Sudoku puzzles in our e-store, and in particular if you enjoyed the classic or Shape Sudoku from this week, those two genres will be part of our next two Masterpiece Sudoku Mixes being released in August.

We will have a special Sunday Stumper puzzle coming out shortly for more Sudoku, and also check out the US round for the Sudoku Grand Prix next weekend for several more sudoku puzzles from me.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

This coming week is a special week for us as we’ll be welcoming a new puzzle grandmaster with a variety mix week of puzzles. Who will the new contributing puzzlemaster be? Come here tomorrow to find out.