[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): The final puzzle of our first sixty set, this Fillomino takes advantage of several less common look-ahead steps to make progress towards the solution. While I hadn’t constructed as many Fillomino before in my life, I learned a lot from this week of experimentation ten years ago and still find Fillomino to be a really rich style with a lot of distinct author styles to be found within it.]

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 number entry mode.)

Theme: Squeeze Play

Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:15, Master = 8:30, Expert = 17:00

Solution: PDF; advice on solving this puzzle was also posted in “Ask Dr. Sudoku #10”

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.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): This snowflake shape was first made for the book Sudoku Masterpieces by me and Wei-Hwa Huang. While the six-linked-cube design is fairly limiting, and some of the region shapes are also quite constrained, the size of the puzzle will take a very observant solver to put all these considerations together and reach the solution.]

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Theme: Last snow of winter? This Snowflake Isodoku may not be the last snowflake to fall this winter, but it will be the last snow-based puzzle from us this year.

Rules: Standard Isodoku rules, using numbers 1-8. Some rows connect across the center of the shape by following the gray lines.

Estimated Difficulty*: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 9:00, Expert = 18:00

Solution: PDF

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): One way to place tension into a Fillomino grid is to have large and small values playing together and potentially competing for space. The repeating values around the central diamond in this Fillomino sets up a lot of the logic for the puzzle’s solution.]

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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: Rough Diamond, or Diamond in the Rough?

Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF

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.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): This second isodoku on the site altered the standard cube shape significantly by flattening out the whole center by looking like a 3 by 3 by 3 cube was removed. The new region shapes now hold some important constraints to make progress in the puzzle.]

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Theme: Missing my Rubik’s? This isodoku has 27 fewer “cubes” than Monday’s puzzle.

Rules: Standard Isodoku rules, using numbers 1-8.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Fillomino is one of our main “region division” puzzle styles, as you try to fit several polyominoes into a grid without similar size regions sharing an edge. In this first Fillomino puzzle on the site from ten years ago, the starting arrangement of 1-8 alongside other two by four groups sets up a beginner’s arrangement of numbers to fit into the grid.]

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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: Two by Fours

Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:15, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF

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.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): This last week of our “first 60” puzzles started with another interesting geometric sudoku variation, that almost looks three-dimensional and changes the meaning of “rows”. While future puzzles would use more altered isodoku shapes, the first puzzle needed to be a standard “cube” with two by four regions.]

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

Theme: Peace!

Rules: Standard Isodoku rules, using numbers 1-8.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

Solution: PDF

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): This challenging sudoku combines both the deficit and surplus varieties and will force you to think about what numbers are absent or repeated in the seven-/nine-cell regions. The combination of styles breaks down a lot of the standard Sudoku rules and might make you ask “what is a Sudoku?” Are these puzzles in that definition somewhere?]

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Theme: L’s Big and Small

Rules: Combined Deficit and Surplus Sudoku rules, with some regions with fewer numbers (no repeats but one number missing) and others with more numbers (1-8 plus one repeat) than expected in a Sudoku. Use numbers from 1-8.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 7:00, Expert = 14:00

Solution: PDF

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): This puzzle was perhaps easier than the Wednesday Slitherlink; by time standards it is about the same, but this grid is larger. However that was partially by design as this TIME puzzle would be on a weekend many readers of that magazine might click over to the site due to a world puzzle championship article. This is a puzzle that isn’t too hard if you try to intuit how the loop goes, but it is not using as many common patterns to get started.]

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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: Just in TIME? A hard Slitherlink puzzle from US Puzzle Team member Thomas Snyder, one of the “Answer Men” profiled in this week’s issue (subscription required).

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Note: Advice on solving this puzzle has now been posted in “Ask Dr. Sudoku #9”

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Slitherlink and this link for Slitherlink variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Slitherlink puzzles to get started on. More Slitherlink puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, Slitherlink and Variations, and our beginner-friendly book Logic Puzzles 101.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Where Deficit Sudoku (Udoku) focuses on “naked single” type information with the altered rules, my own counterpart variation of Surplus Sudoku (Ssudoku) focuses on “hidden single” type information as all large regions must have one of each number (and one duplicate). This mid-week puzzle was trying to be on the easier end to be a parallel entry point into Surplus Sudoku that the Tuesday puzzle was for Deficit Sudoku.]

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Theme: Double Diagonals

Rules: Standard Surplus Sudoku rules, with numbers from 1-8.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2.5 stars

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

Solution: PDF

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): The center field of 1’s is a quite unusual slitherlink pattern that became the focus for the whole solve here and a somewhat challenging puzzle. Another property that makes the grid hard is the absence of any 0’s that usually drive a faster solve. I often find myself making Slitherlinks without zeroes as a way to help my puzzles stand out a bit more.]

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: All for One and One for All

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:15, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Slitherlink and this link for Slitherlink variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Slitherlink puzzles to get started on. More Slitherlink puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, Slitherlink and Variations, and our beginner-friendly book Logic Puzzles 101.