(Note: puzzles during this bonus week are harder than usual; the four puzzles from Monday-Thursday are all about Thursday or Friday level difficulty.)

PDF

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

Theme: Anchor

Author/Opus: This is the 42nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that one of the grid’s clues in each contiguous white or black region indicates the clued region’s area. (Each contiguous region must therefore have at least one clue.) Any other clue in the region must indicate how many of the clued cell’s immediate neighbors are white (up to 9, including itself).

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments 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 = 3:45, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30

Solution: Answers for this week in this PDF.

Note: Turf is a shading puzzle created by John Bulten. We will have several more Turf puzzles from John in a few months when we start a new “Puzzlemasters’ Workshop” book series.

(Note: puzzles during this bonus week are harder than usual; the four puzzles from Monday-Thursday are all about Thursday or Friday level difficulty.)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Pi

Author/Opus: This is the 41st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that the grid is divided into white and black regions. Cells with numbers cannot be shaded. Each white region must contain exactly one number and have the same area in cells as that number. Two white or two black regions may only touch diagonally. Each black region must be exactly specified by one shape graph given below the grid, where graph edges represent one-cell-wide straight paths with variable lengths, and graph nodes represent ends, turns, and branch points. Graphs can be rotated and reflected, and, if multiple graphs are given, not all need be used.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments 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 = 3:45, Master = 6:00, Expert = 12:00

Solution: Answers for this week in this PDF.

Note: Surf is a shading/object placement puzzle created by Izak Bulten, which draws on elements from other shading puzzles like Nurikabe. We will have several more Surf puzzles from Izak and John Bulten in a few months when we start a new “Puzzlemasters’ Workshop” book series.

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: Puzzlin’ One

Author/Opus: This is the 39th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Standard Pentominous rules.

Answer String: Enter the letter associated with the pentomino occupying each cell in the marked rows from left to right and in the marked columns from top to bottom, separating the groups with a comma. Use CAPITAL LETTERS!

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00

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 Plenty o’ Pentominous by Grant Fikes and 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: U’s Full

Author/Opus: This is the 255th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Pentominous rules.

Answer String: Enter the letter associated with the pentomino occupying each cell in the marked rows from left to right and in the marked columns from top to bottom, separating the groups with a comma. Use CAPITAL LETTERS!

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

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 Plenty o’ Pentominous by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

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

Theme: Pi Circle in Order

Author/Opus: This is the 182nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Thermo-Sudoku rules.

Answer String: Enter the 2nd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th row from left to right.

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Thermo-Sudoku to get started on. More Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between Sudoku entry modes and a shading mode to mark off clues.)

Theme: 69 Slices of Pi

Author/Opus: This is the 37th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Standard Outside Sudoku rules. (Some digit clues are repeated but these behave no differently than single clues; 0’s can be ignored.)

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 5th column from top to bottom.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more Outside Sudoku puzzles. More Outside Sudoku puzzles can be found in Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 4.

(view directly for a larger image)

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: 4&7

Author/Opus: This is the 179th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

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 Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 4:45, Expert = 9:30

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 and in Tapa and Variations, both 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: 5&6

Author/Opus: This is the 303rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Variation of Tapa. All the cells in the Tapa must form a single closed loop without any crossings or intersections.

See also this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments (Not the loop 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 = 1:45, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

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 and in Tapa and Variations, both by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Ordered Spiral

Author/Opus: This is the 177th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-6.

Answer String: Enter the 4th row from left to right followed by the 5th row from left to right. Separate the entries with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:45, Expert = 7:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic TomTom. 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.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 29th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Carl Worth.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, except that fractional values are allowed as clues. Also, some cages have multiple operations. These cages must have the same value when operated on by either operation (e.g., a +× cage could contain 123 because 1+2+3 = 1×2×3). This puzzle uses the integers 1-5.

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right followed by the 5th row from left to right. Separate all rows with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for variations of TomTom and this link for more classic TomTom. 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.