Puzzle 380 (Statue Park)

This is a Statue Park puzzle.

Puzzle 380

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Puzzle 376 (Tapa)

This is a Tapa puzzle.

Puzzle 376

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Puzzle 372 (Sudoku) [Star]

This is a Sudoku puzzle, with a twist. Only the numbers 1 to 7 are used in this puzzle, and two spaces in each row, column, and box will not have numbers. Those spaces contain stars instead. Two cells containing stars may not be adjacent, not even diagonally.

Puzzle 372

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If I ever do this variation again I’ll probably do irregular regions and maybe add an extra row or column. A 9 by 9 star battle with those regions just doesn’t have enough solutions for these to stay interesting.

Puzzle 368 (Statue Park)

This is a Statue Park puzzle.

Puzzle 368

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Puzzle 364 (Masyu) [Optional Blacks]

This is a Masyu puzzle, with a twist. The loop is not required to pass through black circles. But if a black circle is passed through, it still functions like it would in ordinary Masyu.

Puzzle 364

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Unrelated to this puzzle: it occurred to me recently that it’s been over a year since the Numberlink solving primer went up, and I haven’t really done any sort of solving guides since then. It’s not for lack of time or desire, but mostly because I have no idea what to write for and what people might want to see. The Numberlink guide itself had been directly inspired from some comments on a recent (at the time) puzzle of mine.

If there’s a type or anything solving-related that you’d like to see a guide for, I’d be happy to hear the request. While there are some things, particularly Latin Square based puzzles, that I have no authority to write on, I think there’s a fair amount I could do.

Puzzle 361 (Statue Park)

This is a Statue Park puzzle.

Puzzle 361

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You can expect a lot of the harder puzzles of this type to be pentomino puzzles. Probably not all of them, but most.

Puzzle 358 (Heyawacky)

This is a Heyawacky puzzle.

Puzzle 358

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Puzzle 355 (Castle Wall)

This is a Castle Wall puzzle.

Puzzle 355

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Puzzle 352 (In-Out Slitherlink)

This is an In-Out Slitherlink puzzle.

Puzzle 352

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Puzzle 349 (Sudoku)

This is a Sudoku puzzle.

Puzzle 349

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Long-time readers might remember the days when puzzle 50n+49 was always some sort of silly joke, with 199 probably being the best example. At first appearance, this might look like a continuation of that, but it isn’t. I did just in fact post a classic Sudoku. Actually I’ve made a few of these already as part of improving my solving. This is the first one that I even considered publishing.

As a final note, the difficulty is probably a little off from Friday. This one is probably around a nikoli Hard, which is more typical for Wednesday on this blog. My reasoning is that classic Sudoku tend to have a difficulty ceiling before guessing becomes the best strategy, and a typical Friday of mine would easily break that threshold.