Our most recent week of Snake puzzles 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 added a solving video for the hard Snake (Cipher) from Serkan Yürekli:

And from our archives we’ve added a link to an old Snake Egg puzzle from Murat Can Tonta and this solving video to cover some general snake approaches that help with that Snake variation:

This upcoming week will feature a variety mix of puzzles from six different genres; we have a lot of guest authors including some new authors that will be featured this week.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between a number entry mode and Yajilin composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Cipher Snake

Author/Opus: This is the 298th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Locate a numbered snake (a 1-cell wide path) that starts with 1 and goes to 45. The snake cannot touch itself, not even diagonally. All numbers are encrypted with C, I, P, H, E, R, S, N, A, K letters and each letter represent a different digit from 0 to 9. Digits outside the grid indicate how many cells in that row or column are occupied by the snake. Some snake segments are already given.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:00, Master = 11:00, Expert = 22:00

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

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Tetrominoes

Author/Opus: This is the 186th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Draw a snake (a 1-cell wide path) from one dot to the other by moving horizontally or vertically between adjacent squares. The snake cannot touch itself, not even diagonally. All highlighted regions must be visited by the snake, and may be re-entered. If two or more highlighted regions have the same shape and orientation, then how the path passes through those shapes must be identical.

Difficulty: 3 stars

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: High-Low

Author/Opus: This is the 20th puzzle from guest contributor Joseph Howard.

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 or revisit any square. Besides the snake, the remaining cells must form exactly nine white areas, one of each size from 1 to 9 (in example, 1 to 5). Numbers in the grid must be part of white areas of the indicated size.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 6:45, Expert = 13:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Author/Opus: This is the 297th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Locate a numbered snake (a 1-cell wide path) that starts with 1 and goes to 45. The snake cannot touch itself, not even diagonally. Every third segment of the snake is marked with gray. Digits outside the grid indicate the number of gray snake segments in that row or column.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Twos

Author/Opus: This is the 177th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Blacken some cells and then locate two snakes (1-cell wide paths). The snakes do not touch themselves or each other, not even diagonally. All remaining white cells must be part of the snakes with the heads and tails given in the grid. Outside clues indicate the size of all groups of blackened cells in that row or column in order. There must be at least one white cell between each of these groups. When no clues are given, any number of cells may be shaded in that row/column.

Difficulty: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:30, Expert = 5:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)

Theme: Divisible by 3

Author/Opus: This is the 53rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.

Rules: Locate a snake (a 1-cell wide path) of unknown length in the grid, whose head and tail are given. The snake does not touch itself, even diagonally. Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of snake cells in that row/column.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:50, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles. More Snake puzzles and variations can be found in Snake and Variations by Serkan Yürekli.

Our most recent week of Kurotto puzzles can be found in this PDF and the solutions are all grouped in this PDF and have also been linked to the individual posts. If you enjoyed this Kurotto week, we will have a collection of Kurotto puzzles from Prasanna Seshadri released as an e-book later this year.

We have created a general Kurotto solving video with tips for this style from Thursday’s puzzle by Prasanna:

We also have a video for the challenging Kurotto (Skyscrapers) variation, also by Prasanna:

This upcoming week will feature Snake puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Square in the Center

Author/Opus: This is the 296th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars (one in the example). Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on shaded cells.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Kurotto puzzles and this link for variations on Kurotto puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kurotto to get started on. More Kurotto puzzles can be found in the ebook Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri.

PDF

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

Theme: Couples

Author/Opus: This is the 185th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Kurotto rules. Also, numbers outside the grid show the number of separate shaded cells 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:

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00

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

Note: Follow this link for classic Kurotto puzzles and this link for variations on Kurotto puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Kurotto to get started on. More Kurotto puzzles can be found in the ebook Kurotto by Prasanna Seshadri.