Pentomino by Zoltán Horváth

Pentomino by Zoltán Horváth

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

Theme: Logical (Originally on 2014 Hungarian Puzzle Championship)

Author/Opus: This is the 6th puzzle from guest contributor Zoltán Horváth.

Rules: Place all 12 pentominoes into the grid, rotations and reflections allowed. Pentominoes cannot touch each other, not even diagonally. Pentominoes cannot use any of the black squares. Outside numbers indicate how many cells in that row/column are part of pentominoes.

Answer String: Enter letters for all pentomino segments from left to right in the marked rows, with one letter for each cell it appears in (e.g. LLLLIV,XXXUU). Separate each row’s entry with a comma and use CAPITAL LETTERS.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 12:30, Expert = 25:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.

Note: Follow this link for other puzzles involving Pentominoes.

Shapes in the Boxes by Zoltán Horváth

Shapes in the Boxes by Zoltán Horváth

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

Theme: Logical (Originally on 2014 Hungarian Puzzle Championship)

Author/Opus: This is the 4th puzzle from guest contributor Zoltán Horváth.

Rules: Put the given shape into each box; the shape can be rotated and reflected. Relationship signs (<, =, >) indicate the relative number of shaded cells for that row/column in adjacent boxes.
See also this smaller example with four boxes:

Shapes in the Boxes

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the black shaded segments in the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row with a comma. Shaded groups continue across the box boundaries. The example has the key “5,32”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

s(TA)tue (PA)rk by Tapio Saarinen

Statue Park by Tapio Saarinen

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

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 5th puzzle from guest contributor Tapio Saarinen. You can find more of his puzzles on Perplexible.

Rules: Combination of Statue Park and Tapa.

Place 11 pentominoes (no P) into the grid, rotations and reflections allowed. Pentominoes cannot cover any cells with clues, and no pentominoes can share an edge (diagonal touching allowed). All remaining white cells, including those with clues, must be connected. Number clues behave like Tapa clues and indicate the length of consecutive shaded blocks in the neighboring cells. All ?s stand for clue values 1 or greater.

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 = 5:00, Master = 10:00, Expert = 20:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Statue Park Puzzles or Tapa Puzzles.

Minesweeper (Pentomino) by Thomas Snyder

Minesweeper Pentomino by Thomas Snyder

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

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 199th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Place the twelve pentominoes into the grid, rotations and reflections allowed. Pentominoes cannot cover the numbered cells, and different pentomino shapes cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner. Numbered cells indicate how many of the surrounding cells (including diagonally adjacent cells) contain parts of the pentominoes.

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 = 3:30, Master = 6:45, Expert = 13:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other puzzles involving Pentominoes.

Tapa-Like Loop by Prasanna Seshadri

Tapa-like Loop by Prasanna Seshadri

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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 on edges)

Theme: Odd One Out

Author/Opus: This is the 45th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: In this variation of Tapa, the wall is in the form of a single non-intersecting loop. Clues inside the grid represent the number of neighboring cells visited by the loop; if there is more than one number in a cell, each number should be represented with a separate loop segment. There is no 2×2 rule of Tapa in this puzzle. This example image should help:

Tapa-like Loop Example by Serkan Yürekli

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. For the example, this would be “11,12”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00

Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.

Note: Follow this link for other Tapa-Like Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on.

Slitherlink (Sheep and Wolves, No 2×2) by Hans van Stippent

Slitherlink by Hans van Stippent

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

Theme: The Lone Sheep

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor Hans van Stippent.

Rules: Standard Slitherlink rules. Also, there are some sheep (marked S) that must be inside the loop and some wolves (marked W) that must be outside the loop. Also, no 2×2 square of cells can be entirely inside the loop or entirely outside the loop.

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the internal loop segments following the arrows for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:45, Master = 6:15, Expert = 12:30

Solution: PDF

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

Masyu (Deformable) by Murat Can Tonta

Masyu by Murat Can Tonta

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

Theme: Dominoes

Author/Opus: This is the 10th puzzle from guest contributor Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Variation of Masyu rules. In addition to the standard rules, some white circles may be shaded to become black circles.

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 = 2:30, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00

Solution: PDF

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

Tapa-Like Loop by Prasanna Seshadri

Tapa-like Loop by Prasanna Seshadri

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 on edges)

Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 44th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: In this variation of Tapa, the wall is in the form of a single non-intersecting loop. Clues inside the grid represent the number of neighboring cells visited by the loop; if there is more than one number in a cell, each number should be represented with a separate loop segment. There is no 2×2 rule of Tapa in this puzzle. This example image should help:

Tapa-like Loop Example by Serkan Yürekli

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. For the example, this would be “11,12”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:20, Master = 2:15, Expert = 4:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Tapa-Like Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on.

Masyu (Regional) by Swaroop Guggilam

Masyu by Swaroop Guggilam

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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: Logical

Author/Opus: This is the 2nd puzzle from guest contributor Swaroop Guggilam.

Rules: Standard Masyu rules. Also, the loop must make the same number of turns in each bold region. It is up to you to determine how many turns this is. (Be sure to count all turns, including turns in black circles.)

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 = 4:00, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00

Solution: PDF

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

Kuromasu (Double) by Prasanna Seshadri

Kuromasu by Prasanna Seshadri

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: Clue Symmetry and Logic

Author/Opus: This is the 43rd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Shade some dominoes (pairs of empty cells) black so that each number indicates the total count of white cells connected vertically and horizontally to that number including the numbered cell itself. Dominoes cannot share an edge, and all white cells must belong to a single connected group. Or see this example:

Kuromasu by Thomas Snyder

Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the white segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. This example has the key “23,15”.

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:45, Master = 9:00, Expert = 18:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Kuromasu is a new puzzle for us this week and we are curious to hear what you think of it.