(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.

(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: Anchor

Author/Opus: This is the 42nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that one of the grid’s clues in each contiguous white or black region indicates the clued region’s area. (Each contiguous region must therefore have at least one clue.) Any other clue in the region must indicate how many of the clued cell’s immediate neighbors are white (up to 9, including itself).

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 = 3:45, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30

Solution: Answers for this week in this PDF.

Note: Turf is a shading puzzle created by John Bulten. We will have several more Turf puzzles from John in a few months when we start a new “Puzzlemasters’ Workshop” book series.

(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; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: Pi

Author/Opus: This is the 41st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Shade some white cells black so that the grid is divided into white and black regions. Cells with numbers cannot be shaded. Each white region must contain exactly one number and have the same area in cells as that number. Two white or two black regions may only touch diagonally. Each black region must be exactly specified by one shape graph given below the grid, where graph edges represent one-cell-wide straight paths with variable lengths, and graph nodes represent ends, turns, and branch points. Graphs can be rotated and reflected, and, if multiple graphs are given, not all need be used.

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 = 3:45, Master = 6:00, Expert = 12:00

Solution: Answers for this week in this PDF.

Note: Surf is a shading/object placement puzzle created by Izak Bulten, which draws on elements from other shading puzzles like Nurikabe. We will have several more Surf puzzles from Izak and John Bulten in a few months when we start a new “Puzzlemasters’ Workshop” book series.

While not a Pentominous puzzle, we wanted to share a cool Pentominoes loop puzzle variant from Murat this week, who is a co-author with Grant Fikes of Plenty o’ Pentominous, released this week.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

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

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 86th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Variation of Yajilin. Place the twelve pentominoes into empty cells in the grid (rotations and reflections allowed). No two pentominoes can share an edge. The numbered arrows indicate the number of cells that are parts of pentominoes in the given direction. Then draw a single closed loop (without intersections or crossings) through all remaining white cells as in a Yajilin.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. If the loop only has vertical segments in the marked row, enter 0. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:00, Master = 12:30, Expert = 25:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other variations of Yajilin and this link for classic Yajilin. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Yajilin to get started on. More Yajilin puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles 2.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a letter entry mode and a shading mode to mark off cells).

Theme: Pi Filling

Author/Opus: This is the 31st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Carl Worth.

Rules: Place each of the given words into the grid, one letter per cell, reading from left to right or top to bottom. All words must be connected, and no words other than the given words can appear in the grid. All occurrences of PI have already been entered into the grid (as the symbol π).

Answer String: Enter all crisscross letters (and spelling out PI where it is used) from left to right for the marked rows and top to bottom for the marked columns. Separate each row/column’s entry with a comma. Use CAPITAL LETTERS and ignore all empty cells.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 25:00, Master = 40:00, Expert = 1:20:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other word logic puzzles.

PDF

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

Theme: Pi All Round

Author/Opus: This is the 38th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.

Rules: Same as LITS, except that each region must contain two shaded tetrominoes. These two tetrominoes within a region cannot touch each other, and can be the same or different shapes.

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

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 5:15, Expert = 10:30

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

Note: Follow this link for more variations of LITS and this link for classic LITS. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest LITS to get started on. More LITS puzzles can be found in LOTS O’ LITS by Grant Fikes and Prasanna Seshadri and in The Art of Puzzles 2.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode, a number entry mode for placing Tapa clues, and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: Equal Representation

Author/Opus: This is the 84th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Variation of Tapa Rules. Every given clue is lying in two ways: first, the number of given clues in that cell is false; second, the value of any given clues is not true for any part of the Tapa around that cell. For example, a 3 clue could actually indicate 24, but it could not indicate 2 (same number of clues) or 23 (the digit 3 appears). 0 is not a valid clue for this Tapa.

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

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

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Tapa variations and this link for classic Tapa. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles and in Tapa and Variations, both by Serkan Yürekli.

(Note: This bonus puzzle is being posted today to mark the occasion of Prasanna’s birthday.)

(View image directly for larger form.)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Theme: 27 years from 03-02-1991 to 03-02-2018

Author/Opus: This is the 160th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: (This puzzle uses standard “Canal View” rules.) Shade some empty cells black to create a single connected group. Cells with numbers cannot be shaded, and the shaded cells cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid. Each numbered cell indicates the total count of shaded cells connected vertically and horizontally to that numbered cell.

Also, in addition to standard Canal View rules, the clues outside the grid on the top and left indicate the difference in lengths of the largest and smallest shaded groups in that row/column (the smallest group must be >0 cells in size and there must be at least two groups in that row/column). The clues outside the grid on the bottom and right indicate the number of shaded groups in that row/column. All ? clues must stand for prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7, …).

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

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 10:00, Master = 22:00, Expert = 44:00

Solution: PDF

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

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)

Theme: 5&6

Author/Opus: This is the 303rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Variation of Tapa. All the cells in the Tapa must form a single closed loop without any crossings or intersections.

See also this example:

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments (Not the loop segments!) from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Tapa variations and this link for classic Tapa. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles and in Tapa and Variations, both by Serkan Yürekli.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

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

Theme: 300 Posts

Author/Opus: This is the 300th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard TomTom rules, except the digit set is unknown. This puzzle uses 9 distinct non−negative integers.

Answer String: Enter the 8th row from left to right followed by the 9th row from left to right. Enter all digits for any multi-digit number, do not use spaces, and separate the entries with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 12:00, Master = 22:30, Expert = 45:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for variations of TomTom and this link for more classic TomTom. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest TomTom to get started on. More TomTom puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles.