Puzzle 417 (Nurikabe)

This is a Nurikabe puzzle.

Puzzle 417

Puzzle 416 (Tapa)

This is a Tapa puzzle.

Puzzle 416

The theme is because I turn 23 today. I also recently learned that this is deu’s birthday too; you may know him as a top solver at LMI/WPCs/nikoli.com.

Well, I suppose that mathematically the chances of two active competitors having the same birthday is pretty high. Even so… this does not feel like your typical pair. Apparently the puzzle gods decreed that people born on this day would enjoy nikoli-style puzzles and be very quick at them.

Puzzle Pack Vol. IV: Fillomino-fillia 2

At long last, the fourth puzzle pack, albeit several months later than I wanted. As this is a companion to the Fillomino-fillia 2 test and serves as its solution booklet, this pack is coauthored with mathgrant, who actually wrote more of the puzzles than I did.

If you did all of the Fillomino-fillia 2 puzzles on the test and preview series, don’t pass over this. You have only done 26 Fillominos in all. This pack has 56 total puzzles, so you’re not even half done.

Download the pack (PDF; 1863 KB)

This pack contains

• The rules and a walkthrough for an example for Fillomino
• 9 puzzles using the standard rules, including a large 20 by 36 brought to you by mathgrant
• 10 puzzles representing all variations from Fillomino-fillia 1
• 4 puzzles of each of the six variations from Fillomino-fillia 2: one easier 7 by 7, the two test puzzles, and the preview
• 4 additional Fillomino-fillia 2 rejects: a Liar, a Snake, and two No-rectangles
• 4 puzzles representing 3 new variations, which may appear on a tentative test for next year that might be called Fillomino-fillia 3
• 4 chimera puzzles combining other variations in the pack
• A fifth chimera puzzle: the FF2 version of last year’s Potpourri
• Hints and solutions for all puzzles

Reporting of errors can be done by comments here or by email.

There will probably not even be progress on Volume V until 2013, as there are Mystery Hunt things to be done.

Puzzle 415 (Fillomino) [Liar]

This is a Liar Fillomino puzzle. In addition to the usual rules, exactly one given number in each row and column is false.

Puzzle 415

Part 4 of 4 in my half of the preview series for Fillomino-Fillia 2. See mathgrant’s blog for the other half.

Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.

Highlight to see answer: 13174993

The test will be available to play on LMI pretty soon. Please give it a go this weekend if you can find the time, and good luck if you do!

Puzzle 414 (Fillomino) [Nonconsecutive]

This is a Nonconsecutive Fillomino puzzle. In addition to the usual rules, two orthogonally adjacent cells may not contain consecutive numbers.

Puzzle 414

Part 3 of 4 in my half of the preview series for Fillomino-Fillia 2. See mathgrant’s blog for the other half.

Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.

Highlight to see answer: 62376777

Puzzle 413 (Fillomino) [No-rectangle]

This is a No-rectangles Fillomino puzzle. In addition to the usual rules, none of the polyominoes can form a rectangle.

Puzzle 413

Part 2 of 4 in my half of the preview series for Fillomino-Fillia 2. See mathgrant’s blog for the other half.

Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.

Highlight to see answer: 47656765

EDIT: I meant to point out originally that this puzzle was the inspiration. (That’s the second time this blog has linked to that puzzle.)

Puzzle 412 (Fillomino) [Snake]

This is a Fillomino Snake puzzle. A snake with a head and tail and unknown length must be drawn in the grid so that it contains all shaded cells. The snake does not touch itself, even at a point. The remaining spaces must be divided into polyominoes satisfying the usual Fillomino rules. The snake may touch polyominoes of the same size as itself.

Puzzle 412

Part 1 of 4 in my half of the preview series for Fillomino-Fillia 2. See mathgrant’s blog for the other half.

Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right. For a cell with a snake segment, write X.

Highlight to see answer: 269X9722

On a related note, it seems the WordPress thumbnail issue has fixed itself. That’s a relief.

Puzzle 411 (Numberlink)

This is a Numberlink puzzle.

Puzzle 411

It seems I may end up returning to weekly posts after all. You’ll just have to forgive me for the fact that many of them will be rejects from other projects (which are not named Mystery Hunt).

WordPress continues to give ugly thumbnails. Above I’ve employed the best solution I found, which is to upload a manually-scaled thumbnail to show up on the post. Clicking the image will still get you the full-size version. Pain in the butt for me though.

Puzzle 410 (Nurikabe) [Cipher]

This is a Nurikabe puzzle, with a twist. Some numbers have been replaced with letters. Same letters represent same numbers, and different letters represent different numbers. The assignment of letters to numbers is up to you to determine.

Puzzle 410

This is (probably) not a return to the weekly posting yet; it’s a one-off I made before the WPC and wanted to post.

When a call for making a puzzle to decorate the US team shirt went out, I made this, while motris made this. As can be clearly seen I wasn’t thinking a whole lot about aesthetics in making mine, so there was a clear deserving winner for getting put on the shirt. Still, the puzzle came out well and is worth posting.

On another note: is everyone else seeing the gridlines as not showing up in the scaled thumbnail above in a very ugly way? It happened to Space Probes in my USPC set too. Geez, after over 3 years this is the first time I’ve been really upset with how WordPress is treating me.

Puzzle 409 (Multi-Ouroboros)

This is a Multi-Ouroboros puzzle.

Puzzle 409