Puzzle 339 (Nurikabe)

This is a Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 339

(Click for larger size)

Boy did this one take time to get right. You might need to expand your toolbox a little to solve it, but it’s not too difficult.

Puzzle 333 (Nurikabe)

This is a Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 333

(Click for larger size)

This appeared in a round of 20 by 20 puzzles of standard types. I don’t think this round ever got put online due to an error in another puzzle, but based on the points distribution published online, where it had the second highest worth behind only a similarly sized Kakuro, this was probably one of the harder challenges in the round.

Puzzle 315 (Nurikabe / Fillomino)

This is a Nurikabe / Fillomino hybrid puzzle.

Puzzle 315

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(See 294 for info about this “reject” series.) I think this is the very last of the rejects (two and a half months after the test was released too!). As usual for these Fridays, this was a puzzle that was just too hard to keep.

Puzzle 313 (Nurikabe)

This is a Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 313

(Click for larger size)

Melon’s Puzzle Zoo has ended

Around the time of this posting, LMI is no longer accepting score submissions for the contest. Below is a link to the puzzle booklet, the same as the one on LMI without the password. There is also a PDF that has all of the puzzles on the test together with their solutions (don’t open if you don’t want to see them yet!), as well as some brief comments from myself about the puzzles. Mostly I pointed out the tricky innovative logic the puzzle had, if any — and for the adults there almost always was some.

Puzzle PDF
Solution PDF

Puzzle 292 (Nurikabe / Fillomino)

This is a Nurikabe / Fillomino hybrid puzzle.

Puzzle 292

Part 11 of 12 in the Melon’s Puzzle Zoo preview series.

Answer Entry: Enter the units digit of each number in the marked rows and columns. For instance, if a 4 or 14 appears in the row or column you would enter 4 for it.

Highlight to see answer: 1993314733, 2668655272

Puzzle 287 (Line Nurikabe)

This is a Line Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 287

Part 6 of 12 in the Melon’s Puzzle Zoo preview series.

Answer Entry: Enter the contents of each cell in the marked rows and columns. Use 0 for an unshaded cell and 1 for a shaded cell.

Highlight to see answer: 1111011010, 1111001011

Puzzle 281 (Nurikabe) [Pairs]

This is a Nurikabe puzzle, with a twist. Every region of unfilled cells must contain exactly two numbers (instead of one) and have total size equal to the sum of the two numbers.

Puzzle 281

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More revisiting of variations that deserved more love than just being used once. The first of these I posted was a fairly popular puzzle, and it baffled me because I didn’t think it had done anything special. This puzzle shows the kind of potential I had foreseen for the variation, which that first puzzle did not reach.

Puzzle 268 (Nurikabe)

This is a Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 268

(Click for larger size)

Puzzle 250 (Nurikabe) [Marathon]

This is a Sunday Nurikabe marathon. That is, it is a very large and very difficult Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 250

I have some unfortunate news. With the exception of a total eight days of break, this blog has had one puzzle go up every day for over 200 days now. Tomorrow that will end. There will likely still be updates to this blog, but they will be much more sparse, perhaps around once per week. (and obviously puzzle difficulties will no longer be aligned with the days of the week)

The primary reason is that there are a number of puzzle-related projects I have been wanting to do for months. None of them were things I could find the time to do concurrently with keeping up the schedule on this blog. In addition, although my idea well is not dry, for logic puzzles like these it is not at the depth it used to be, and there are several that I’m putting in reserve for the aforementioned projects.

It doesn’t help that with every post here my publishing standards increase. A lot of time recently has been spent starting or making puzzles that I threw into the reject pile, ones I may have been happy to use in the past. Added with the time spent on puzzles that do go up, that’s an enormous investment.

I should also note that I may begin to put up some additional posts without puzzles. This will be exclusively a puzzle blog, but I may share many of the things I’ve learned about puzzle solving and construction, and some of my philosophies regarding them.

Thanks a lot to everyone who read, solved, or commented here. We’ll still be going, just not as strong as before.