[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Skyscrapers is a Japanese puzzle style and one of the first genres shared with the world via the World Puzzle Championship as an early mainstay. This first Skyscrapers on Grandmaster Puzzles tries to set up a lot of the logic in the horizontal row clues with the other clues then supporting a path to the unique solution.]

PDF

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

Theme: A little of everything — the rows have clues from 1 to 6.

Rules: Standard Skyscrapers rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:50, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00

Solution: PDF

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

I’ve been doing some traveling so am a bit late in announcing the release of our fifth episode of Smashing the Sudoku, as we look back at the good (and evil?) sides of puzzle styles like Consecutive Sudoku and Masyu.

We’ve also now completed adding hints and solutions to the four Microsoft Puzzlehunt puzzles we’ve put here over recent Sundays. If you haven’t checked out these puzzles yet please find them alongside a few other “puzzle hunt” puzzles on our blog.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): This very difficult Consecutive Sudoku reveals the two sides of this genre (the positive rule for consecutive digits and the negative “anti”-rule for nonconsecutive digits) with a narrow solving path to connect the top and the bottom.

PDF

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

Theme: Jekyll and Hyde – digits but no bars up top, bars but no digits down below. Master both sides to solve this puzzle.

Rules: Standard Consecutive Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 9:00, Expert = 18:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): The first set of Masyu puzzles ends with a grid that almost has “twisted” symmetry meaning antisymmetry of white and black circles. Several less conventional steps are required to find the one true loop in this challenging Masyu.]

PDF

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

Theme: Almost Twisted! – Slightly imperfect, but more difficult as a result.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 2:30, Expert = 5:00

Solution: PDF and solving video; advice on solving this puzzle was also posted in “Ask Dr. Sudoku #5“.

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): In this second Consecutive Sudoku from our first month of puzzles, the “boxes” theme works across four sets of numbers and two consecutive bar groups. Those elements should get you started, but some of the key solving may also occur in the less orderly corners where large runs of digits are implied by the bars and others by the absence of bars.

PDF

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

Theme: Boxes upon Boxes

Rules: Standard Consecutive Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 3 stars

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

Solution: PDF

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Making images of smiley faces in puzzle form is one way I try to make the world at least 1% happier. This Wednesday Masyu has a couple less common lookahead steps but should continue to be a good introduction to the genre for those without much prior familiarity (this was a bigger gap in 2013 when the puzzle was written than in 2023).]

PDF

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

Theme: Smiley Face – our first (but probably not last) use of this theme here.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:40, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF

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

Several members of the GMPuzzles family are from Turkey, and our thoughts go out to them and to others from Turkey and Syria who may have been affected or may know those affected by the recent earthquakes on the Turkish/Syrian border.

GMPuzzles will be donating all proceeds from book sales for the next ten days to relief efforts like those of the Turkish Red Crescent; we will also match any donations that come in via PayPal over the same period (see Tip Jar in left menu). As an advance against those amounts, we’ve given $1,000 to https://ahbap.org/disasters-turkey.

Update 12 Feb 2023: Serkan has constructed a puzzle to help raise awareness and funding for those impacted by the earthquake. We’ve put together this simplified PDF to be able to play along with the puzzle.

The puzzle was also featured on Cracking the Cryptic:

with this link to play the puzzle online.

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Consecutive Sudoku is one of the most basic variations of Sudoku to uses properties of the numbers to help place sets of digits into the grid. Wei-Hwa Huang and I included it in Mutant Sudoku with several artistic themes, despite the challenges that the “anti”-rule forces into puzzles for having no consecutive digits when bars are not present. In future years, GMPuzzles prioritized Consecutive Pairs Sudoku which only uses the positive information of known pairs for cleaner themes and easier solving. But as we look back on our past, this week will show examples of me pushing the limits of a style with two kinds of constraints, positive and negative, across every pair of cells.

PDF

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

Theme: Hashtag Fun? A consecutive sudoku with a large # in the middle.

Rules: Standard Consecutive Sudoku rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

Solution: PDF

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

[This is a repost from our archives with new notes at the top (original post here): Our first Loop/Path puzzle genre on the site was Masyu, a style from Nikoli that focuses on white and black clue elements on a big grid, sharing some visual inspiration from Go. The distinct rules of going straight through and turning at the “pearls” leads to different kinds of logic as seen in this “25th” puzzle from over a decade ago.]

PDF

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

Theme: Our 25th prescription! Enjoy this easy Masyu puzzle.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules.

Estimated Difficulty*: 1 star

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

Solution: PDF

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

See these earlier posts 1, 2, and 3 for the other Microsoft Puzzle Hunt challenges

Puzzle PDF

Author/Opus: This is the 433rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Hints:
1. How do I get started? Pbafvqre gur fvatyr pryy ahzorerq fdhnerf dhvgr pnershyyl gb uryc svther bhg jung xvaq bs chmmyr guvf vf.
2. How do I solve this? Guvf vf n UVQNGB chmmyr jvgu ahzrevpny pbafgenvagf nf va n GbzGbz/Pnyphqbxh npebff pryyf. Sbe rknzcyr, gur 8÷ pntr pbagnvaf n 3 naq 24 (nf 24/3 = 8).
3. How do I get a final answer? Gur sbhe ? fdhnerf pbagnva gur inyhrf 46, 73, 85, naq 97 va fbzr beqre. Ohg gurfr inyhrf jba’g or nf vzcbegnag gb svavfu gur chmmyr nf gur cngu gb trg guebhtu gurz.

Solution: PDF

Answer String: Enter the final answer (a word or phrase) in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS without spaces to confirm. There may be intermediate answer phrases that are not the final answer; our answer checker is not able to send the message “Keep going” like the Microsoft Hunt solving software does so if you do not see what you expect, treat it like “Keep going” and potentially send an email to us or watch out for hints.