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Theme: Clue Symmetry & Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 4th puzzle from guest contributor Jamie Hargrove.

Rules: Variation of Nurikabe. Some of the given island clues are actually part of the ocean and must be shaded over. (All other Nurikabe rules still apply, including all islands contain exactly one clue number equal to the area of the island.)

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments (the unnumbered, connected “ocean”) from left to right for the marked rows. Enter both digits for any two-digit number. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 8:15, Expert = 16:30

Note: Follow this link for other classic Nurikabe. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabes to get started on.

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Theme: 2×2 Clue Blocks

Author/Opus: This is the 3rd puzzle from guest contributor Jamie Hargrove.

Rules: Shade some cells black so that all unshaded number and arrow clues indicate the exact count of shaded cells in the given direction. Shaded cells cannot share an edge, and all white cells must remain connected as part of a single contiguous group. It is allowed to shade over some of the numbered cells; a shaded over clue may or may not be true.

Also, see this example:

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of shaded cells as a single string. For the example, the answer is “20212”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 5:15, Expert = 10:30

Note: Follow this link for other less common Shading puzzles.

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Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Jamie Hargrove.

Rules: Standard Nurikabe rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments (the unnumbered, connected “ocean”) from left to right for the marked rows. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 4:15, Expert = 8:30

Note: Follow this link for other classic Nurikabe. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabes to get started on. More Nurikabe puzzles can be in The Art of Puzzles collection.

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Theme: One Letter Clue

Author/Opus: This is the 3rd puzzle from guest contributor Nikolai Beluhov.

Rules: Draw a snake (a 1 cell-wide path) in the grid whose head and tail are given by circled cells. The snake can touch itself diagonally, but cannot touch itself orthogonally. All cells that are not part of the snake must be part of a pentomino (i.e., an orthogonally connected group of five cells). These unused pentominoes cannot touch orthogonally but can touch diagonally. A letter in a cell represents the pentomino shape that the cell belongs to. Pentomino shapes can be repeated in the grid, and can also be rotated and reflected. (Lettered cells cannot be used by the snake.)

Answer String: Enter the number of cells in each of the snake segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 7:15, Expert = 14:30

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles.

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Theme: Clue Symmetry & Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 1st puzzle from guest contributor Joseph Howard.

Rules: Standard Araf rules.

Answer String: Enter the number of cells in each connected group (between bold lines) in the marked rows.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30

Note: Follow this link for more Araf puzzles on this website. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Araf Puzzles to get started on.

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Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 9th puzzle from guest contributor Bryce Herdt.

Rules: [Variation of LITS]. Shade exactly four connected cells in each outlined region, to form an L, O, T, or S tetromino, so that the following conditions are true:
(1) All shaded cells are connected with each other;
(2) No 1×4 group of cells can be entirely shaded black;
(3) When two tetrominoes in adjacent regions share an edge, they must not be of the same type (L, O, T, or S), regardless of rotations or reflections.

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

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.

(View image directly for larger form.)

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Theme: Clue Symmetry & Logic (prepared for the 2017 Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 274th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Connect each pair of identical numbers with a path passing through edge-adjacent cells. No cell may be used on more than one path.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal line segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00 (*Estimates from competition scoring, not our usual process)

Note: Follow this link for other Loop/Path puzzles.