(Note: puzzles during this bonus week are harder than usual; the four puzzles from Monday-Thursday are all about Thursday or Friday level difficulty.)

PDF

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

Theme: Hidden

Author/Opus: This is the 43rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that each contiguous white region is a valid Four Winds region (that is, the white region consists of at least two white cells, and has at most one “central” cell where both vertical and horizontal connections are made; if the white region contains a numeric clue, this clue must be the “central” cell and represent the count of all other cells in the region, which must be connected vertically or horizontally to this clue). An arrow clue must belong to a white region and point to its “central” cell (assignment of which cell is “central” is not necessary in one-cell-wide rectangular regions). The contiguous black regions can contain zero, one, or more clues. All clues inside a black region must indicate that region’s area.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 8:00, Expert = 16:00

Solution: Answers for this week in this PDF.

Note: Winddraughts is John Bulten’s variation on the puzzles Four Winds and Checkered Fillomino.

17/12/02 – Tapa (Different)
17/10/07 – Snake Pit X
17/09/13 – Cross the Streams (LITS)
17/09/02 – Pentominous (Borders)
17/08/19 – Killer Sudoku
17/08/05 – Double Kakuro
17/07/22 – Tapa (Hex)
17/06/28-29 – Spiral Galaxies + 2x
17/06/15 – Nurikabe (Yajisan-Kazusan)
17/06/01 – Pentosnake
17/05/12 – Castle Wall (Hex)
17/04/12+15 – Double Yajilin
17/03/25 – Starship Battle
17/03/11 – Tapa (Visionary)
17/03/04 – Fillomino (Symmetry)
17/02/10 – Cave
17/01/27 – Masyu or Balance Loop?
17/01/13 – Pata
16/12/10 – Fillomino (Kropki)
16/11/12 – Statue Park
16/11/05 – Minesweeper (Even Rows/Columns)
16/10/23 and 16/10/21 – Tight Fit Sudoku (Classic and Killer)
16/10/08 – Roller Coaster
16/09/30 – Pentominous (Star Battle)
16/09/17 – Japanese+Latin Sums
16/09/10 – Fillomino (Symmetry)
16/08/27 – Castle Wall
16/08/17 – Gapped Kakuro
16/08/06 – Slitherlink (Large-Square)
16/07/29 – Yajilin
16/07/22 – Canal View
16/07/09 – Thermo-Sudoku
16/07/01 – Masyu (Regional)
16/06/10 – Star Battle (Small Regions)
16/05/13 – Yajilin (Transparent)
16/04/28 – Cross the Streams (Windows)
16/04/16 – Range
16/04/10 – Killer Sudoku
16/03/17 – Ripple Effect
16/03/12 – Slitherlink
16/02/27 – Arrow Sudoku
16/02/18 – Kurotto
16/02/13 – Double Kakuro
15/04/02 – Snake Egg
15/03/26 – Fillomino (Symmetry)
15/03/21 – Skyscrapers
15/03/14 – 2D Top Heavy Number Place
15/03/05 – Yajilin
15/03/01 – Star Battle (bonus)
15/02/22 – Skyscrapers (bonus)
15/02/13 – Balance Loop
15/02/07 – Kakuro (Hex)
15/01/31 – Even/Odd Sudoku
15/01/24 – TomTom
15/01/16 – Unique Clues Tapa
15/01/10 – Battleships
14/12/26 – Pentopia
14/12/17 – Battleships
14/12/13 – Cross the Streams (LITS)
14/12/05 – Cipher Fillomino
14/11/28 – Prime Cave
14/11/22 – Cipher Pentominous
14/11/15 – Castle Wall
14/11/08 – LITS
14/10/31 – Jack-O’-Lantern Thermo Sudoku
14/10/24 – TomTom
14/10/17 – RoundTrip
14/10/04 – Pentomino
14/09/27 – Tapa
14/09/18 – Pentominous
14/09/12 – Sudoku
14/09/06 – Tapa-Like Loop
14/08/28 – Pentominous
14/08/23 – Killer Sudoku
14/08/15 – Kuromasu
14/08/08 – Sum Skyscrapers
14/08/02 – Repeated Neighbors Sudoku
14/07/24 – Nanro
14/07/12 – Nurikabe
14/07/04 and 14/07/06 – Star Battle
14/06/24 and 14/06/27 – Cross the Streams (B&W Partially Inverted and Pentominoes)
14/06/09 and 14/06/21 – Word Nurikabe and Cipher TomTom from IPC
14/06/13 – Transparent Tapa
14/05/31 – Slitherlink (Portal)
14/05/22 – LITS
14/05/08-09 – Araf
14/05/03 – Heavy Dots
14/04/19 – Ripple Effect
14/04/12 – Checkered Fillomino
14/04/05 – Audio Cross the Streams
14/03/28 – Outside Nurikabe
14/03/21 – Sudoku
14/03/07 – Slitherlink (Sheep and Wolves)
14/02/27 – Cave
14/02/14 – Fillomino

Region Division puzzles made up a total of 64 posts, and had some of the highest rankings of all of our puzzles making this an incredibly tight category.

One puzzle with a very high FAVE/solver ratio was this creative “Infinity!” Araf from Serkan Yürekli:

(view image directly for larger form)

While many of our best Cave puzzles were contained in our ebooks this year, Thomas Snyder’s Product Cave from January garnered a lot of Favorite votes:

Fillomino puzzles closed out our favorites of 2014. Arguably the best puzzle of the year was a giant Fillomino “Dear John” from Grant Fikes that went out to our patrons in April; these votes just cover our web puzzles though.

Tapio Saarinen made a cute Fillomino out of just tiny digits:

Guest contributor Robert Vollmert created a really challenging Checkered Fillomino with some interesting discoveries inside as well:

Closing out the best Region Division puzzles of 2014 were a pair of Cipher Fillomino from Palmer Mebane. Palmer’s not had a lot of interest in puzzle construction over the last couple years, but whenever he returns with new ideas they have been fantastic. Quoting from his email that submitted these two: “This is not really a return; just a couple good ideas that were too good (in my head) to leave undone.” While Tic-Tac-Toe got a lot of Fave votes, the C Major theme earned the most for Region Division puzzles and tied (with the TomTomTom and a puzzle to be named tomorrow) for Puzzle of the Year:

These best puzzles have been gathered in this PDF.