Here are our best Number Placement puzzles of 2018, selected from the 50 web posts in this category:

We haven’t had many puzzles from Palmer Mebane recently (in part it seems he mostly constructs for World Puzzle Championship preparation), but this WPC prep puzzle — Skyscrapers (with Sum Baskets) — has a very elegant logical solving path that our solvers appreciated.

Regular contributor and grandmaster Grant Fikes shared this Kakuro (Gapped) puzzle that also earned a good number of FAVE votes.

Murat Can Tonta won another best of award for this Thermo-Skyscrapers combination which, like some prior examples, avoided needing to give any given numbers to get its logical solution going. The presence of only three short thermos outside the grid was a cute new twist on this style.

Our runaway winner in the category though, and the runner-up for Best Puzzle of 2018, was this TomTom (Mystery) written by Thomas Snyder as his 300th post here on the site. [Breaking third-person self reference:] While I haven’t had the chance to write as many puzzles this year, focusing more on editing, it was great to receive recognition from so many of you for this milestone puzzle.

(view directly for a larger image)

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

Theme: Fours and Fives

Author/Opus: This is the 48th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Standard Skyscrapers rules (using digits 1 to 7). Also, there are some regions (”Sum baskets”) in the grid marked by dashed lines. The sum of the buildings in these sum baskets is given. Building heights can repeat within a basket.

Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 7th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:15, Master = 6:30, Expert = 13:00

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 46th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers. Insert a digit from 1 to 5 into each empty cell so that each row and column has one copy of each digit and exactly one mirror. Each digit in the grid represents the height of a building, and clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction, including those seen through the mirror’s reflection. Buildings block the view of any building with equal or lower height behind them.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th row from left to right. Ignore the cells with the mirrors when entering the solution (i.e., just enter cells with digits 1-5).

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 7:00, Expert = 14:00

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between ship placement and shading modes. In ship placement mode, right click gives sea, left click gives circle/square, left click and drag for rounded ships.)

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 45th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Combination of Skyscrapers and Battleships. Place the indicated fleet into the grid so that no different ships are in cells that share an edge or corner. The size of the ship represents its height as in a Skyscrapers puzzle, and the clues outside the grid indicate how many ships are visible in that direction. Ships block the view of any ship of equal or smaller size behind them.

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a ship segment appears (enter just the last digit for any two-digit number). If the row is empty, enter 0. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 8:00, Expert = 16:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Skyscrapers puzzles and this link for more classic Battleships puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: All For One, …

Author/Opus: This is the 44th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers. Insert a digit from 1 to 5 into each empty cell so that each row and column has one copy of each digit and exactly one mirror. The direction of the mirrors must also be determined. Each digit in the grid represents the height of a building, and clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction, including those seen through the mirror’s reflection. Buildings block the view of any building with equal or lower height behind them.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 5th row from left to right. Use the slash characters / or \ to enter the mirrors.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 6:00, Expert = 12:00

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4?

Author/Opus: This is the 42nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers. Insert a digit from 1 to 4 or a diagonal mirror into each empty cell so that each row and column has one copy of each digit and exactly one mirror. Each digit in the grid represents the height of a building, and clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction, including those seen through the mirror’s reflection. Buildings block the view of any building with equal or lower height behind them.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th row from left to right. Use the slash characters / or \ to enter the mirrors.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 6:30, Expert = 13:00

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 41st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers. Insert a digit from 1 to 4 into each empty cell so that each row and column has one copy of each digit and exactly one mirror. The direction of the mirrors must also be determined. Each digit in the grid represents the height of a building, and clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction, including those seen through the mirror’s reflection. Buildings block the view of any building with equal or lower height behind them.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 2nd row from left to right. Use the slash characters / or \ to enter the mirrors.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 40th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.

Rules: Variation of Skyscrapers. Insert a digit from 1 to 4 into each empty cell so that each row and column has one copy of each digit and exactly one mirror. Each digit in the grid represents the height of a building, and clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction, including those seen through the mirror’s reflection. Buildings block the view of any building with equal or lower height behind them.

Also see this example:

Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th row from left to right. Ignore the cells with the mirrors when entering the solution (i.e., just enter cells with digits 1-4).

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

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 284th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Skyscrapers rules.

Answer String: Enter the 5th row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:20, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Clue Symmetry & Logic (This is a sample puzzle from the new beginner-friendly book: Intro to GMPuzzles)

Author/Opus: This is the 215th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Skyscrapers rules.

Answer String: Enter the 1st row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th row from left to right.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 0:40, Master = 1:00, Expert = 2:00

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, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.