This is a Tapa puzzle, with a twist. Each clue functions not only as a normal Tapa clue but also serves as a clue for the region it is contained in, giving the size of each contiguous block of black cells in the region. Each region contains at most one clue, and there are no constraints on regions without a clue.
Puzzle 389
I’ve been surrounded by so much Tapa lately that I can’t help but think of more ideas for it…
This is a Tapa puzzle, with a twist. The borders between some cells may be either thick or nonexistent. A thick border separating two cells means one is shaded and the other is not. A lack of a border means the two cells are both shaded or both unshaded.
Puzzle 388
The borders idea seems close to being able to stand on its own without any Tapa clues. I’m sure such puzzles can be made, but I don’t think it would have the kind of depth I want in a type.
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 384
I had to cheat symmetry a little bit on this one. Oh well; this was hard enough to construct as it is.
Many of you may be aware that my team (Manic Sages) won the MIT Mystery Hunt this past weekend. I’m hoping to contribute quite a bit to next year’s hunt, both logic puzzles and non-logic puzzles. I don’t anticipate any delays in my blog posting (whether the Wednesday puzzles or packs); the most likely compensation is that I’m probably not going to be writing as many LMI tests this year as I hoped I would.
This is a Tapa puzzle, with a twist. The borders between some cells may be either thick or nonexistent. A thick border separating two cells means one is shaded and the other is not. A lack of a border means the two cells are both shaded or both unshaded.
Puzzle 382
This is a Nurikabe / Tapa Mastermind puzzle. Solve the left grid as a Nurikabe and the right grid as a Tapa. The gray numbers between corresponding rows represent Mastermind clues. If one were to superimpose the two solutions (without rotation or reflection), the gray number in a row tells exactly how many squares are shaded in both grids.
Puzzle 381
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 373
The gimmick in this puzzle means that trial and error strategies are likely to get you the solution in short order. So I did my best to make the logical path as clean as possible, and I mostly succeeded. For maximum enjoyment and challenge, avoid any if-then sequences of significant depth.
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
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.
This is a Castle Wall puzzle, with a twist. None of the clue colors are given initially. For each symmetric pair of clues, exactly one is inside the loop (white) and exactly one is outside the loop (black).
Puzzle 365
Unrelated to this puzzle: if you’re a Fillomino fan, you will enjoy this puzzle from Anderson Wang, a regular USPC/LMI competitor and someone I’ve met in real life through math contests. His other content is worth doing too, but that one stands out.
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
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.
This is a Tapa puzzle, with a twist. The restriction that clues must be unshaded is lifted. Unshaded clues function like normal Tapa clues. But if a clue is shaded, then those numbers tell the length of each consecutive white cell block in the surrounding squares (possibly including unshaded clues), with each block separated by at least one black cell (possibly a shaded clue).
Puzzle 351
