Our master+ subscribers receive access to two bonus puzzles each week in addition to other rewards. We make these posts so those supporters have a space to comment on these puzzles, mark as FAVES, or log their solving. If you are interested in subscribing and seeing these bonus puzzles, click here for more info.

Theme: 4 Out of 5

Author/Opus: This is the 334th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Battleships rules. Use the indicated fleet.

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a ship segment appears (enter just the last digit for any two-digit number). If the row is empty, enter 0. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

Note: Follow this link for other classic Battleships. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Battleships to get started on. More Battleships puzzles can be found in Battleships and Variations, in The Art of Puzzles, 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 to alternate between ship placement and shading modes. In ship placement mode, right click gives sea, left click gives circle/square, left click and drag for rounded ships.)

Theme: The Love Boat

Author/Opus: This is the 333rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Battleships rules. Use the indicated fleet.

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a ship segment appears (enter just the last digit for any two-digit number). If the row is empty, enter 0. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

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

Our most recent variety mix of puzzles from the Toketa authors is in this PDF.

This coming week will feature Battleships puzzles. Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Battleships (Loop) by Serkan Yürekli and a Classic Battleships (with 15 ships, up to 1×5) by Thomas Snyder and access to puzzle solutions. If you want to become a subscriber and get access to bonus puzzles, solutions, e-books, and other rewards, check out this page.

Our most recent week of Kakuro puzzles is in this PDF.

For the second time, we are featuring a special variety mix week from several of the Japanese authors who make the Toketa book series (link to PDF from 2017’s Toketa week). We will have three different variations — primarily new puzzle styles from the most recent volume — with two puzzles each over the week. Toketa Volume 6 came out at the end of last year, and played its own special role in my winning the World Puzzle Championship (link to my long report).

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Battlestar by Grant Fikes and a Snake Pit by Serkan Yürekli who also contributes to Toketa, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Friday and Saturday puzzles. Last weekend, our grandmaster supporters also received three large bonus puzzles: a Kakuro by Hatice Esra Aydemir, a Tapa LITS Distiller by Grant Fikes, and a Crisscross by Grant Fikes. If you want to become a subscriber and get access to bonus puzzles, solutions, e-books, and other rewards, check out this page.

Our most recent week of Yajilin puzzles is in this PDF.

Our next week features Kakuro puzzles. We have also just posted the last two sections of The Art of Puzzles 2 to our e-store, include a Kakuro and Double Kakuro section, and a Spiral Galaxies and Double Spiral Galaxies section.

This week, our subscribers are getting early access to the full week of puzzles, and images of the puzzle solutions. Master+ subscribers to the site are getting a bonus Kakuro by Serkan Yürekli and a Kakuro (Nonconsecutive) by Grant Fikes. If you want to become a subscriber and get access to bonus puzzles, solutions, e-books, and other rewards, check out this page.

Our most recent week of Fillomino and Fillomino (Cipher) puzzles is in this PDF.

Our next week features Yajilin puzzles.

This week, our subscribers are getting early access to the full week of puzzles, and images of the puzzle solutions. Master+ subscribers to the site are getting a bonus Yajilin by Grant Fikes and a Yajilin (Double) by Murat Can Tonta. And within the last couple weeks our grandmaster level subscribers have received the last two parts of the book The Art of Puzzles 2, Kakuro and Spiral Galaxies, which will be released here later this month. If you want to become a subscriber and get access to bonus puzzles, solutions, e-books, and other rewards, check out this page.

Our subscribers receive access to bonus puzzles each week. We make these posts so those supporters have a space to comment on these puzzles, mark as FAVES, or log their solving. If you are interested in subscribing, click here for more info.

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 332nd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.

Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows/columns, enter the area of the polyomino it belongs to. Enter just the last digit for any two-digit number. Start with the 1st row, followed by a comma, followed by the 9th row.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00

Note: Follow this link for other classic Fillomino and this link for more variations on Fillomino puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Fillomino puzzles to get started on. More Fillomino puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Fill o’ Fillomino and Fill o’ Fillomino 2 by Grant Fikes, and in our beginner-friendly book Logic Puzzles 101.

Click this link for a collected PDF with all of our “Best of 2018” puzzles can be found here.

Our first week of 2019 features Fillomino and some Fillomino (Cipher) variations.

This week, our subscribers are getting early access to the full week of puzzles, images of the puzzle solutions, and a video talkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. Master+ subscribers to the site are getting a bonus Fillomino by Thomas Snyder and a Fillomino (Even/Odd) by Murat Can Tonta. If you want to become a subscriber and get access to bonus puzzles, solutions, e-books, and other rewards, check out this page.

Here are our best Sudoku puzzles of 2018, selected from the 42 web posts in this category:

Visually distinctive puzzles were an important part of the top Sudoku from 2018. While posted in our last week of 2018, this Christmas Tree Sudoku by Thomas Snyder (that combines Sudoku with the popular Star Battle style) got a lot of FAVE votes in a rather short time.

While we have been avoiding “Pi” puzzles for a long time here — some of us assert there is a more fundamental mathematical constant around 6.283 — having some new editors involved on the web led to our first full week of “Pi” puzzles in March and some others later in the year. Two Pi sudoku stood out including this Consecutive Sudoku from guest contributor Fatih Kamer Anda.

Another prize goes out to an Arrow Sudoku from Murat Can Tonta.

The best sudoku of 2018 goes to another Pi-themed puzzle, a Thermo-Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli with an incredibly elegant arrangement of its givens that still leads to a fundamentally interesting logical solve.

Here are our best Number Placement puzzles of 2018, selected from the 50 web posts in this category:

We haven’t had many puzzles from Palmer Mebane recently (in part it seems he mostly constructs for World Puzzle Championship preparation), but this WPC prep puzzle — Skyscrapers (with Sum Baskets) — has a very elegant logical solving path that our solvers appreciated.

Regular contributor and grandmaster Grant Fikes shared this Kakuro (Gapped) puzzle that also earned a good number of FAVE votes.

Murat Can Tonta won another best of award for this Thermo-Skyscrapers combination which, like some prior examples, avoided needing to give any given numbers to get its logical solution going. The presence of only three short thermos outside the grid was a cute new twist on this style.

Our runaway winner in the category though, and the runner-up for Best Puzzle of 2018, was this TomTom (Mystery) written by Thomas Snyder as his 300th post here on the site. [Breaking third-person self reference:] While I haven’t had the chance to write as many puzzles this year, focusing more on editing, it was great to receive recognition from so many of you for this milestone puzzle.

(view directly for a larger image)