PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing, a letter entry mode, and shading / shape entry modes depending on how you want to mark the stars.)

Author/Opus: This is the 360th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Combination of Pentominous and Star Battle. Place stars into some cells so that there are two stars in each row and column; no two stars can touch, even diagonally. Then divide the rest of the grid into 16 regions each containing 5 cells. Regions with the same shape (including rotations/reflections) cannot share an edge. A cell with a letter in it must be part of the pentomino shape normally associated with that letter; an inventory of pentominoes is given below the puzzle.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:30, Master = 10:15, Expert = 20:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

Note: Follow this link for other Pentominous puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Pentominous to get started on. More Pentominous puzzles can be found in the Plenty o’ Pentominous series by Grant Fikes and Murat Can Tonta and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

This year, we started posting some extra difficult Sunday Stumpers, about once a month. These will be quite tough puzzles, but with a logical path to be found (and solution videos to help). This ninth Sunday Stumper is a new Star Battle variation from puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta; more of this variant will be in our upcoming Star Battle 2 e-book from JinHoo Ahn and Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

(view directly for a larger image)

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools where a single star in gray means two stars but the standard Star Battle interface is used; if you prefer seeing 1 versus 2 objects, here is an alternate formatting using mines that allows for that.)

Theme: Stars

Author/Opus: This is the 208th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules with three stars per row, column, and region. Also, there are some shaded cells in the grid and those cells either contain two stars or none. (In a gray cell with two stars, none of the adjacent cells sharing an edge or corner can have any stars.)

See also this example:

Difficulty: 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 10:30, Master = 23:30, Expert = 47:00

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.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between edgex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s and a star placement mode)

Author/Opus: This is the 332nd puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars (one in the example). Stars cannot touch each other, even diagonally, and all stars must be inside the loop. Stars cannot be placed in the numbered cells.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:00, Master = 14:15, Expert = 28:30

Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.

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.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

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

Theme: HEX Week

Author/Opus: This is the 25th puzzle from guest contributor Joseph Howard.

Rules: Fill some cells with stars so that each row (in a horizontal or either of two diagonal directions) and bold region contains the indicated number of stars. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge.

Difficulty: 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 9:45, Expert = 19:30

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.

PDF

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

Theme: Broken Frame

Author/Opus: This is the 374th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules. Also, some region boundaries are missing, but all given borders must separate cells in different regions.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:00, 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 collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

PDF

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

Theme: Episode V

Author/Opus: This is the 10th puzzle from guest contributor JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard Star Battle rules with two stars per row, column, and region. Also, each given gray line must contain two stars.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, 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 book Star Battle by JinHoo Ahn, 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 key to alternate between loop drawing and star placement modes.)

Theme: Edge Cases

Author/Opus: This is the 193rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules. Also, each row and column must contain exactly two stars. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner, and all stars must be on empty cells which are not part of the loop.

Difficulty: 3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:15, Expert = 10:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Masyu and this link for Masyu variations. Follow this link for other classic Star Battles and this link for Star Battle variations.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing, a shading mode, and a shape (star) entry mode for the relay puzzle.)

Theme: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 37th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Carl Worth.

Rules: First, solve the top grid puzzle as a Mirror Universe puzzle: Divide the grid along the indicated lines into connected regions – “galaxies” – so that every cell is part of one galaxy and every galaxy has one circle clue inside it. If the galaxy contains a plain circle without any lines, the galaxy must be rotationally symmetric with that circle being the center of rotational symmetry. If the galaxy contains a circle with a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line, the galaxy must have mirror symmetry when reflecting across the line given in the circle. Also, some cells contain black dots – “asteroids” – which must be symmetrically arranged based on the rules of symmetry (rotational or mirror) for every galaxy that contains them.

Mirror Universe + Asteroids Example by Carl Worth:

Then, copy all ten of the galaxy regions from the solved Mirror Universe into the bottom grid. Solve this puzzle as a Star Battle puzzle with two stars in every row, column, and region.

Answer String: For each row from top to bottom, enter the number of the first column from the left where a star appears. Enter these numbers as a single string with no separators.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:00, Master = 10:15, Expert = 20:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Star Battles. 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 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 the tab key to alternate between a Star Battle placement option and a Sudoku number entry option)

Theme: Christmas Tree

Author/Opus: This is the 331st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Classic Sudoku rules, with the digits 1-7 and two stars to be placed in each row, column, and bold region. As in Star Battle puzzles, the stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner.

Answer String: Enter the 5th row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 9th row from left to right. Enter a capital letter X for any cell with a star in it.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

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

Additional Note: This puzzle has been featured by the Cracking The Cryptic channel on Youtube.

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: 1 to 4 Spiral

Author/Opus: This is the 35th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Carl Worth.

Rules: Combination of Battleships and Star Battle. Follow standard Battleships rules. Also, exactly two ship segments are present in each bold region.

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 = 6:00, Master = 9:00, Expert = 18:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Star Battles and this link for classic Battleships. More Battleships puzzles can be found in Battleships and Variations, in The Art of Puzzles, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.