Our next planned e-book will be Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn. We’re putting the finishing touches on it now, and should be posting it this week. So if you enjoyed the most recent week of Star Battle puzzles, please check out this title when it launches.

Last week’s mix of Star Battle 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 Friday Star Wars variation by JinHoo Ahn:

and another video for the Saturday Star Battle by Thomas Snyder:

This upcoming week will feature LITS puzzles.

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Episode V

Author/Opus: This is the 10th puzzle from guest contributor JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules with two stars per row, column, and region. Also, each given gray line must contain two stars.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

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

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab key to alternate between loop drawing and star placement modes.)

Theme: Edge Cases

Author/Opus: This is the 193rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on empty cells which are not part of the loop.

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:15, Expert = 10:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Masyu and this link for Masyu variations. Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations.

PDF

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

Theme: Musical Notes

Author/Opus: This is the 9th puzzle from guest contributor JinHoo Ahn.

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

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Square Space

Author/Opus: This is the 333rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

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

Difficulty: 2 stars

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

Solution: PDF

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Overgrown Region

Author/Opus: This is the 309th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

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

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF

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.

Here is a (very hard) sample puzzle from the Killer Sudoku puzzle pack by Serkan Yürekli, which was just added to our e-store.

PDF

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

Theme: Time Killer

Author/Opus: This puzzle comes from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli as part of his new e-book.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules. Also, the sum of the numbers in each cage must equal the value given in the upper-left corner of that cage. Numbers cannot repeat inside a cage.

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 11:00, Master = 24:00, Expert = 48:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video from Cracking the Cryptic will be available here.

Note: Follow this link for more Killer Sudoku and this link for classic Sudoku. More Killer Sudoku puzzles can be found in Killer Sudoku 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: Sum Central

Author/Opus: This is the 192nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Kakuro Rules.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:00, Master = 10:45, Expert = 21:30

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

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.