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or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 106th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
Rules: Standard Yajilin rules.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. If the loop only has vertical segments in the marked row, enter 0. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: May
Author/Opus: This is the 104th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
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.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 2:00, Expert = 4:00
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: Symmetrical Clues (allowing for rotations and reflections)
Author/Opus: This is the 102nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules. Also, there are some sheep (marked by a reflected 2 in blue) that must be inside the loop and some wolves (marked by a rotated 3 in red) that must be outside the loop.
(Note: the reflected/rotated digits in blue and red do not actually serve as loop clues meaning 2 and 3, just as sheep and wolves. We chose this presentation because the theme works better with the wackiness of some 2’s and 3’s even if it needs this extra note.)
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the internal loop segments following the arrows for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:30, Expert = 5:00
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools).
Theme: Near Maximal Difficulty with Near Minimal Givens
Author/Opus: This is the 101st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
Rules: Place a number into each cell so that each region contains the numbers 1 to N, where N is the size of the region. A cell with the number M must have at least M cells between it and any other instance of the same number M in that row or column.
Answer String: Enter the numbers in the marked rows in order from left to right, separating the rows with a comma. Start with the 5th row, followed by a comma, followed by the 9th row.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00
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 number entry mode.)
Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 100th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes!
Rules: Standard Fillomino rules. Also, no polyominoes that differ by one in size can share an edge.
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 3rd row, followed by a comma, followed by the 5th row.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00
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 number entry mode.)
Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 99th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
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 4th column, followed by a comma, followed by the 7th column.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00
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 number entry mode.)
Theme: Don’t Stop Solving Fillomino
Author/Opus: This is the 98th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
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 10th row.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30
Editor’s Note: It seems a lot of people aren’t taking us seriously this week, as if our April 1st announcement of a puzzle app combining TomTom with 2048 and Threes! was just a joke. Today’s puzzle actually grew out of a past April 1st announcement that led to a real audiobook deal for our Grandmaster titles. This puzzle is a sample from Grant Fikes’ upcoming Cross the Streams audiobook. Listen carefully or you won’t be able to solve the puzzle.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a number entry mode to track clues.)
Theme: Asterisk, Asterisk, Asterisk, ***
Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules. Also, (as transcribed from the audio file): “You will hear the clues read to you, first the across clues (starting with the topmost row and moving towards the bottom) and then the down clues (starting with the leftmost column and moving towards the right). In this beautiful 10×10 puzzle, called “Asterisk, Asterisk, Asterisk”, grandmaster Grant Fikes has challenged the normal conventions of Cross the Streams, sometimes having two or more consecutive asterisks in a single row or column.”
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from top to bottom for the marked columns, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 7:00, Master = 12:00, Expert = 24:00
Solution:PDF 1 and PDF 2; a solution video is available here.
