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Theme: Mini Hexes

Author/Opus: This is the 384th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Variation of LITS. Shade exactly four cells in each outlined region to form an S, L, I, C, or Y tetrahex. When all regions have been shaded, the following conditions must be true:
1) All shaded cells will be connected through a network of adjacent shaded cells;
2) No three shaded cells will share a common vertex;
3) When two tetrahexes share an edge in adjacent regions, they must not be the same type (S, L, I, C, or Y), regardless of potential rotations or reflections.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:00, Master = 8:00, Expert = 16:00

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

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.

Prasanna is celebrating two milestones this week and we will have two special large puzzles. The first one here recognizes Prasanna’s 200th submission on GMPuzzles, and combines three of the styles where Prasanna has written books for our e-store.

(view directly for a larger image)

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or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; while solution checking is not enabled, if you are comfortable with the different tool selection options you should be able to fully solve the puzzle in this mode too.)

Theme: Linking 200 cells

Author/Opus: This is the 200th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules:

Grids 1-2: Follow regular LITS rules. Between the two LITS grids, the corresponding white cells can never both be shaded, while the corresponding gray cells must be identical in the three 200-shaped regions.

Use the LITS solutions and your ingenuity to discover the needed constraints for Grids 3-4. For Grid 3, you will find that some gray circles must change color to white or black.

Grid 3: Follow regular Balance Loop rules. Additionally, the loop must cross itself if it passes through a gray circle. The loop must go straight throught the gray circle both times; in one direction the path behaves as if the circle is white with equal loop lengths, and in the other direction the path behaves as if the circle is black with unequal loop lengths. It is not required that the loop pass through all of the gray circles (but it must pass through all white and black circles). (See also the image below.)

Grid 4: Follow regular Yajilin rules.

When taken together, the grids yield a short final answer! Send this (less than five character) string to hiddencontest at gmpuzzles dot com by March 14th, 2021 to be eligible to win an e-book by Prasanna Seshadri. The contest is now closed and results summarized here.

Difficulty: 5 stars?

Solution: PDF

PDF

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

Theme: Thinking Outside the Box

Author/Opus: This is the 2nd puzzle from guest contributor wormsofcan.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

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

Theme: Double “LITS”

Author/Opus: This is the 22nd puzzle from guest contributor Joseph Howard.

Rules: Standard LITS rules, except that each region must contain two shaded tetrominoes. These two tetrominoes within a region cannot touch each other, and can be the same or different shapes.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 6:45, Expert = 13:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

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

Theme: Pirouette

Author/Opus: This is the 194th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 4:45, Expert = 9:30

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

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Cells

Author/Opus: This is the 11th puzzle from guest contributor JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:15, Expert = 6:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Tetromino LITS

Author/Opus: This is the 310th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Pentomino LITS

Author/Opus: This is the 369th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 1 star

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:10, Expert = 2:20

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Grandmaster Puzzles

Author/Opus: This is the 11th puzzle from guest contributor Chris Green.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 5:00, Expert = 10:00

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

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Tiny Pieces

Author/Opus: This is the 3rd puzzle from guest contributor Anurag Sahay.

Rules: Standard LITS rules.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 2:45, Expert = 5:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic LITS and this link for LITS variations. 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.