PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between ship placement and shading modes. In ship placement mode, right click gives sea, left click gives circle/square, left click and drag for rounded ships.)

Theme: Just Try Two Find Us

Rules: Standard Battleships rules.

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.

Time Standard: Battleships Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 2:45, Expert = 5:30

Solution: PDF

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between number placement, ship placement, and shading modes. The shading mode in gray, which numbers can be written on top of, may work better than default ship placement.)

Theme: Even Steven; the fleet has only certain kinds of numbers.

Rules: Standard Battleship Sudoku rules.

Answer String: Enter the 2nd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th column from top to bottom.

Time Standard: Battleship Sudoku Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

Solution: PDF

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between ship placement and shading modes. In ship placement mode, right click gives sea, left click gives circle/square, left click and drag for rounded ships.)

Theme: Rising or Falling? Patterned digits in the rows.

Rules: Standard Battleships rules.

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.

Time Standard: Battleships Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF

PDF

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

Theme: Totally Twisted: a challenging grid shape

Rules: Standard Sudo-Kurve rules.

Answer String: Enter the “row” marked A, followed by a comma, followed by the “row” marked B.

Time Standard: Sudo-Kurve Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Advice on solving this puzzle has now been posted in “Ask Dr. Sudoku #7”

(View image directly for larger form.)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Block Party — repeated clues in each corner.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

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 Standard: Tapa Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 7:30, Expert = 15:00

Solution: PDF

PDF

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

Theme: Happy Valentine’s Day – a heart of given numbers inside a heart-shaped grid.

Rules: Standard Sudo-Kurve rules.

Answer String: Enter the “row” marked A, followed by a comma, followed by the “row” marked B.

Time Standard: Sudo-Kurve Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30

Solution: PDF

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Greek Cross

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

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 Standard: Tapa Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Editorial Note: The solving path on this puzzle is quite narrow to start, but it is recommended that you find it instead of randomly guessing.

Solution: PDF

PDF

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

Theme: A simple start: a Sudo-Kurve with just three regions.

Rules: Standard Sudo-Kurve rules.

Answer String: Enter the “row” marked A, followed by a comma, followed by the “row” marked B.

Time Standard: Sudo-Kurve Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:20, Expert = 2:40

Solution: PDF

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: A little of everything — clues from 1 to 8 exist in value-mirrored (9-x) symmetric locations throughout the middle of the grid.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules.

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 Standard: Tapa Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF

No real news this week. I’m moving away from San Francisco, so this week and next will be pretty brief Doctor’s Note-wise.

This coming week contains Tapa and Sudo-Kurve puzzles. As I’ve never posted a *classic* Tapa puzzle despite writing several, I needed to make a new example worthy for posting tomorrow on the Rules page. This example (about Wednesday difficulty) is a bonus puzzle for today, and there will be three more Tapa puzzles throughout the week.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Quadrants

Rules: Shade some squares black to create a single connected wall. Numbers in a cell indicate the length of consecutive shaded blocks in the neighboring cells. If there is more than one number in a cell, then there must be at least one white (unshaded) cell between the black cell groups. Cells with numbers cannot be shaded, and the shaded cells cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid.

Answer String: Enter the length of shaded segments, from left to right, in each of the indicated rows. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standard: Tapa Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Solution: PDF