Our second “Patron Week” of the year is coming up with challenges requested by our supporters. The week has a fun mix of classics and variations but be aware that the difficulty is higher than usual.
Monday: Nurikabe by Thomas Snyder
Tuesday: Yajilin by John Bulten
Wednesday: Cave (Diagonal) by Prasanna Seshadri
Thursday: Word Connection by Serkan Yürekli
Friday: Masyu (Regional) by Prasanna Seshadri
Saturday: Easy as Kakuro by Serkan Yürekli

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Pentominous by Grant Fikes, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Friday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

The most recent week of puzzles from Serkan Yürekli and Murat Can Tonta can be found in this PDF.

It is taking longer than expected to edit our next “Patron Week” of puzzles, including a giant Saturday puzzle that will take a long time to solve. So it will be one more week before new puzzles are posted here, but it will be worth the wait.

The second part of our two week US Puzzle Grand Prix spotlight can be found in this PDF.

This week features puzzles from both Murat Can Tonta and Serkan Yürekli:

Monday: Star Battle (Small Regions) by Serkan Yürekli
Tuesday: Yajilin by Murat Can Tonta
Wednesday: Star Battle (Small Regions) by Serkan Yürekli
Thursday: Fillomino by Murat Can Tonta
Friday: Star Battle (Small Regions) by Serkan Yürekli
Saturday: Tapa (Loop) by Murat Can Tonta

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Star Battle (Small Regions) by Serkan Yürekli, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Friday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

PDF

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

Theme: Pentomino (originally on the US round for the 2016 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 246th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-8.

Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right followed by the 4th row from left to right. Separate the entries with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:30, Master = 12:00, Expert = 24:00

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Cornered (originally on the US round for the 2016 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 245th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

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

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a star appears. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators. Enter both digits of any two-digit column number.

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

Solution: PDF

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

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: Five (originally on the US round for the 2016 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 244th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Cave rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the cave 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 = 5:00, Master = 7:30, Expert = 15:00

Solution: PDF

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

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Sum of Five Pentominoes (originally on the US round for the 2016 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 243rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the internal loop 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 = 2:30, Master = 4:15, Expert = 8:30

Solution: PDF

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

PDF

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

Theme: Pentomino Five (originally on the US round for the 2016 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 242nd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

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

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a star appears. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators. Enter both digits of any two-digit column number.

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

Solution: PDF

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

PDF

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

Theme: Five (originally on the US round for the 2016 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix)

Author/Opus: This is the 241st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, using the integers 1-5.

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right followed by the 4th row from left to right. Separate the entries with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:45, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

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.

The first week of our two week US Puzzle Grand Prix spotlight can be found in this PDF. This week for the second half of this spotlight we will primarily feature Dr. Sudoku’s Five/Pentomino themed puzzles from the competitive section.