Archive for the ‘Variation’ Category:

Slitherlink (Sudoku) by Serkan Yürekli

Slitherlink by Serkan Yürekli

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s and a number-entry mode)

Theme: Conjunction T

Author/Opus: This is the 286th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules. Also, enter a number from 0 to 3 into each gray cell as additional Slitherlink clues. Numbers in the gray cells cannot repeat in any row, column, or gray tetrominoes.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 7:30, Expert = 15:00

Solution: PDF

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.

Tapa (Double) by Serkan Yürekli

Tapa (Double) by Serkan Yürekli

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: Prisoner

Author/Opus: This is the 285th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Additionally, shade two separate Tapa walls that do not overlap or cross each other. All digits in a clue cell refer to the shading of just one Tapa wall within the puzzle and provide no information on the shading of the other wall around that clue.

See also this example:

Tapa (Double) by Serkan Yürekli

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 11:45, Expert = 23:30

Solution: PDF

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

Tapa (Skyscrapers) by Freddie Hand

Tapa by Freddie Hand

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: The Silence of the Tapa

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor Freddie Hand.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, numbers outside the grid show the number of separate wall segments visible in that direction. A segment of length N in a given direction is taken as a building of height N. Buildings of height N block the view of all buildings behind them of equal or lesser height.

See also this example:

Tapa (Skyscrapers) by Serkan Yürekli

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 10:30, Expert = 21:00

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

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

Tapa (Islands) by Murat Can Tonta

Tapa by Murat Can Tonta

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: Illusion of Choice

Author/Opus: This is the 169th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, similar to Nurikabe, each clue cell is part of an island of horizontally and vertically connected white cells. Islands are allowed to touch diagonally. Islands may contain at most one clue cell, and the area of the island must be one of the numbers in the clue (as an example, if a clue is 15, then the island containing that clue must be either 1 cell or 5 cells large).

See also this example:

Tapa (Islands) by Serkan Yürekli

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00

Solution: PDF

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

TomTom (Cipher) by John Bulten

TomTom by John Bulten

PDF

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

Theme: Nuns See Sense!

Author/Opus: This is the 68th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-6. Also, the letters E, N, S, U represent different digits from 0-9. Identify which letters stand for which digits and then solve the TomTom. Multi-digit clues cannot start with a 0.

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

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.

Pentominous (Borders) by Grant Fikes

Pentominous by Grant Fikes

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a letter entry mode.)

Theme: Dynamite Walls

Author/Opus: This is the 320th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Variation of Pentominous rules. Some borders between pentominoes are already drawn.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Pentominous puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Pentominous to get started on. More Pentominous puzzles can be found in the Plenty o’ Pentominous series by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Pentominous (Borders) by Murat Can Tonta

Pentominous by Murat Can Tonta

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a letter entry mode.)

Theme: Heart-Shaped Box

Author/Opus: This is the 165th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Variation of Pentominous rules. Some borders between pentominoes are already drawn.

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Pentominous puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Pentominous to get started on. More Pentominous puzzles can be found in the Plenty o’ Pentominous series by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Kakuro (Kropki) by Serkan Yürekli

Kakuro by Serkan Yürekli

PDF

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

Theme: V for Victory

Author/Opus: This is the 281st puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Kakuro rules. Also, a white circle between two cells shows that the digits in those cells are consecutive (i.e., they differ by 1). A black circle shows that the digit in one of the cells has twice the value of the other. If there is no circle between adjacent cells, neither of these properties holds. (Note: between 1 and 2, either a white or a black circle can be given.)

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 7:00, Expert = 14:00

Solution: PDF

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

Nanro (Signpost) by John Bulten

Nanro by John Bulten

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use the tab key to alternate between shading and number entry modes)

Theme: Mirror

Author/Opus: This is the 67th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Variation of Nanro. Label some cells with numbers to form a single connected group of labeled cells. No 2×2 group of cells may be fully labeled. Each label number (including black given numbers) must be equal to the total count of labeled cells in that bold region, and all bold regions contain at least one labeled cell. The given numbers in gray indicate how many cells are labeled in that region (but not necessarily which cells are labeled). When two label numbers are orthogonally adjacent across a region boundary, the numbers must be different.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for Nanro puzzles on this website and this link for variations on Nanro puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nanro Puzzles to get started on. More Nanro puzzles can be found in A Number o’ Nanro by Prasanna Seshadri.

Countdown Tapa: 8 Days to Go

To enable our June reopening, Serkan Yürekli has stepped into a role as Managing Editor for the site. Serkan now oversees our puzzle submission and review process, assembles the web weeks, and has also brought new ideas for puzzle packet formatting, books, and other things you’ll see as we re-launch. As one small example, while we have always had an escalating set of puzzle difficulties from Monday to Saturday, we are now going to try to put star ratings (out of 5) on all puzzles for more comparison across weeks. We’re quite excited to have Serkan step into this larger role, and hope it increases the quantity of puzzles we can release without any change in the quality you have come to expect from GMPuzzles.

Enjoy this challenging Tapa (False) variation from Serkan as we count down the 8 days remaining.

Tapa (False) by Serkan Yürekli

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: 8 (or 2 cubed)

Author/Opus: This is the 280th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster — and new managing editor — Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Variation of Tapa rules. All clue digits are false and should be either one higher or one lower than the value given. (Note: Some corrected clue sets may be identical to their uncorrected versions, e.g. 1 2 becoming 2 1. Some corrected sets may contain zeroes, which have no effect on the remainder of the clue set.)

Solution: PDF

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