Our past Star Battle week is gathered in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More books containing Star Battle puzzles can be found here.
The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:
The next week of puzzles will feature Tight Fit Sudoku and Consecutive Pairs Sudoku, both types in our latest Masterpiece Sudoku Mixes (see upcoming post for more details).
(view directly for a larger image)
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)
Theme: TIE Fighter
Author/Opus: This is the 6th puzzle from guest contributor Sam Cappleman-Lynes.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region. (The shading of the large central region is for thematic purposes only.)
Difficulty: 3.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 7:45, Expert = 15:30
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the books Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn and Star Battle 2 by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta, and in our beginner-friendly collections Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and Starter Pack 5: Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)
Theme: 3×3
Author/Opus: This is the 88th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Ashish Kumar.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region.
Difficulty: 3.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the books Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn and Star Battle 2 by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta, and in our beginner-friendly collections Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and Starter Pack 5: Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)
Theme: Plusses
Author/Opus: This is the 11th puzzle from guest contributor Jonas Gleim.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region.
Difficulty: 3 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the books Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn and Star Battle 2 by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta, and in our beginner-friendly collections Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli and Starter Pack 5: Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)
Theme: Parquet
Author/Opus: This is the 41st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster JinHoo Ahn.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region. Also, the arrow clues indicate all the directions (up, down, left, and right) where the nearest stars are located when looking from that square.
See also this example:
Difficulty: 2.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:15, Expert = 8:30
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the books Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn and Star Battle 2 by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)
Theme: Diamond
Author/Opus: This is the 366th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region.
Difficulty: 1.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the books Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn and Star Battle 2 by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; in composite Star Battle mode a left click places a star, right click in a cell marks off the cell, and a right click on an edge or corner marks in a dot as a placement note.)
Theme: Tokyo Olympic Torch
Author/Opus: This is the 12th puzzle from guest contributor Takeya Saikachi.
Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Two stars per row, column, and region.
Difficulty: 1.5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:30, Expert = 3:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Star Battles to get started on. More Star Battle puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in the books Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn and Star Battle 2 by JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.
We’ve just published the first volume of a new series of “Starter Packs”, books with good easy to medium (Monday to Wednesday) puzzles for some of our different puzzle genres. The first volume, Starter Pack 1: Fillomino features one of our favorite region division puzzles and comes with 30 hand-crafted puzzles by Grant Fikes.
This is also the first e-book from us that includes a set of links to Penpa-Edit versions of the puzzles for online solving. While we are still working to create a more immersive online solving experience in the future, people who buy this book will find a set of 30 web-links at the back to be able to digitally solve all of the puzzles too.
The next Starter Pack will be coming out in a couple months and will feature Tapa by Serkan Yürekli.
Our past variety mix week, with slightly easier than usual puzzles to pair with our “Starter Pack” series, has its puzzles gathered together in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. We’re putting the finishing touches on Starter Pack 1: Fillomino by Grant Fikes (including building very basic digital solving/Penpa option for the book) and will release that in next day.
The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:
The next week of puzzles will feature Star Battle, one of our favorite puzzle styles, and will have five classic and one variation during the week.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Percentage
Author/Opus: This is the 228th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.
Rules: Standard Even/Odd Sudoku rules (i.e., cells with a square contain an even digit; cells with a circle contain an odd digit).
Difficulty: 3 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for more Even/Odd Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Even/Odd Sudoku to get started on. More Even/Odd Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2 and Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 1.