PDF

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

Theme: Twisted Keys

Author/Opus: This is the 368th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 18:00, Expert = 36:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the book Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Later today we’ll be sharing a (very hard) sample puzzle from a Killer Sudoku puzzle pack from Serkan Yürekli, which was just added to our e-store. We are experimenting with different sizes for our puzzle titles; while this is a smaller puzzle pack than others, at just 27 puzzles, it is still full of a lot of brain-bending challenge at a $2 price. If you enjoyed the mental arithmetic in this recent Kakuro week, you will certainly enjoy the math and logic needed to get through these Killer Sudoku.

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Our most recent mix of Kakuro puzzles and variations can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.

We have a solving video for the Thursday Double Kakuro (Invisible) by Grant Fikes:

and another video for the Saturday Kakuro by Prasanna Seshadri:

This upcoming week will feature Star Battle puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Five Rooms

Author/Opus: This is the 367th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Kakuro Rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Kakuro and this link for Kakuro variations. More Kakuro puzzles can be found in Kakuro and Variations by Serkan Yürekli and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

A few months ago we had a full week of Kurotto puzzles and promised that an e-book would be available later this year with more of this great shading puzzle style. Today we’ve released that e-book, Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri, and it is one of my favorite books that we’ve published because it takes this puzzle style much further than others have, including with a few new variations from Prasanna.

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Our most recent mix of Sudoku puzzles and variations can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.

We have a solving video for the Thursday XV Sudoku by Ashish Kumar:

and another video for the Saturday Thermo-Sudoku by Thomas Snyder:

If you prefer to see Simon from Cracking the Cryptic work on this grid, we have that video too:

This upcoming week will feature Kakuro puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Clueless

Author/Opus: This is the 366th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Thermo-Sudoku rules.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:15, Master = 10:00, Expert = 20:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video from the author is also available here and another from Cracking the Cryptic is here.

Note: Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Thermo-Sudoku to get started on. More Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2 and Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 2.

Our most recent variety mix of puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.

We have a solving video for the Friday Killer Sudoku by Grant Fikes:

and another video for the Saturday Slitherlink by Tom Collyer:

This upcoming week will feature Sudoku and variations.

PDF

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

Theme: Even Up

Author/Opus: This is the 365th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-5.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:50, Master = 1:05, Expert = 2:10

Solution: PDF

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

Over the last week we’ve added two e-books to our store: Plenty O’ Pentominous 3 by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta, and Yajilin Battleships by Serkan Yürekli. Please check them out if you are interested in some fun puzzle challenges.

Our most recent week of Balance Loop puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts.

We have a solving video for four of this past week’s puzzles. First are solving videos for two of the regular Balance Loops, starting with the Forgotten Numbers by Grant Fikes:

and another video for the Even Diagonally puzzle by Prasanna Seshadri:

We also have solving videos for the two harder variations to close the week. This includes the Balance Loop (Skyscrapers) by Murat Can Tonta:

and the Balance Loop (Star Battle) by Serkan Yürekli:

This upcoming week will feature a variety mix of puzzles from across six different genres.

Our solvers have found Pentominous to be a really great region division puzzle, so we are excited to announce the third volume in our e-book series, Plenty O’ Pentominous 3, has just been released on our e-store. Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta are back with another incredible set of Pentominous puzzles, including 8 Pentominous (Borders) variations.

If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Pentominous to get try out.

Yajilin and Battleships are two of our favorite Loop and Object Placement puzzles, respectively. What happens when you combine them? Our new e-book Yajilin Battleships by Serkan Yürekli will show you.

We’ve included here the example puzzle from the book which is now available for purchase. We have a companion solving video if you want to see what these puzzles are sometimes like. Some other prior posts with this style from Serkan, Freddie Hand and Grant Fikes are linked.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between Battleships placement and line drawing modes.)

Rules: Variation of Battleships and Yajilin. Place the fleet of ships in the grid so that different ships are not in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner. The grid contains internal clues (a number and an arrow) that show how many ship segments are in the indicated direction. All remaining white cells that do not contain a ship segment must be able to form a single loop, as in a Yajilin puzzle.

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.