Spooky puzzles for Halloween ! And FillomiNovember is starting tomorrow !

     Here are 2 puzzle to scare you to tell you the month of November will be exclusively Fillomino (and variants), at the rate of 1 per day. These are old puzzles (late 2022) and were expected to be use in a speed solving constest with friends. As I don't have friends as the puzzles are of good quality it would be a waste to keep them collecting dust on my pc, so they will be shared gradually. I hope you love Fillomino as mush as I do, and to justify making a post, here is an Aquapelago and a Tren (Ghost). Here are the rules :

Aquapelago : Shade some cells on the board. Some shaded cells may be given.

- Shaded cells cannot be horizontally or vertically adjacent.

- The unshaded cells cannot form a 2x2 square.

- A number indicates the amount of cells in its diagonally connected group of shaded cells.

- All unshaded cells on the board form an orthogonally connected area.

Tren (Ghost) : Place several 1x2 and 1x3 blocks on the board, which don't overlap each other.

- Each number is contained in a block. Blocks may or may not contain a number.

- Horizontally oriented blocks can slide left and right, while vertically oriented blocks can slide up and down. Blocks cannot move outside the grid or through other blocks.

- A number inside a block indicates how many spaces the block can move.

- All empty cells must form an orthogonally connected area.

Rules taken from puzz.link - click for Aquapelago and Tren examples. Tren (Ghost) is not supported so the answer is provided.

      Tough puzzles today, and hopefully spooky enough to justify this as a Halloween post.

                                                           Aquapelago (medium to hard)

Ghost Tren (hard) (solution)

Fractional division

     Before closing off the month of october, here is Fractional Division, a devious region division puzzle genre with quite the funny look. The puzzles presented today are quite rough, so easier puzzles may be provided in the future to compensate (although I don't see how you make easy, non-trivial puzzles here). Here are the rules :

Draw lines over the dotted lines to divide the board into regions.

- Each region contains exactly one cell with a number.

- A number indicates the ratio of circles (top) to cells (bottom) in the area (e.g. 2/3 can be 2 dots in 3 cells, 4 dots in 6 cells, 6 in 9 etc.).

Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

     Many thanks to Barbitos, Aubin Danzo, Jubale and Wessel for testing and providing feedback.

Puzzle 1 (easy to medium)

Puzzle 2 (medium to hard)

Puzzle 3 (hard)

Ring-ring 💍💍

     Living up to its name, Ring-Ring is a silly loop genre (a peculiar one, as it features multiple loops) with very simple-looking grids and ruleset. Speaking of which, Here are the rules :

Draw lines through the center of cells to fill all empty cells with a rectangular loop.

- Loops may cross each other, but may not overlap or share a corner.

- Loops cannot go through shaded cells.

     Thanks to Kays and Wessel for providing feedback.

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (medium)

Puzzle 3 (medium)

Evolmino ⮕☐⮕☐☐⮕

     Evolmino is an offbeat object placement puzzle with a nice look and nice logic ideas. It was brought very recently on Nikoli's "Omopa", and allows for puzzles of all difficulties. Here are the rules :

Place squares in some of the unshaded cells.

- Orthogonally adjacent squares form blocks. Every block must have exactly one square overlapping an arrow.

- Each arrow must pass through two or more blocks.

- When following an arrow from the start to the end, the second and subsequent blocks must have the same shape as the previous block (without changing orientation) with one additional square.

Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

   Do check the rules page to make sure the "evolution" idea is well understood. As always, if more puzzles of this type come I will try to aim for other difficulties.

     Thanks to Wessel for testing and providing feedback.

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (medium)

Puzzle 3 (hard)

Kurodoko/Kuromasu

     Here is a shading genre with yet another simple ruleset, allowing for great accessibility for all levels : Kurokoro (also Kuromasu). Here are the rules :

Shade some cells on the board.
- Shaded cells cannot be horizontally or vertically adjacent.
- Numbers cannot be shaded.
- Clues represent the total number of unshaded cells that can be seen in a straight line vertically or horizontally, including itself.
- All unshaded cells on the board form an orthogonally connected area.

Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

     Thanks to Wessel for testing and providing feedback.

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (easy to medium)

Puzzle 3 (medium)

Slalom ⛷️🚩

     Slalom is a fun, easy genre to dive into the world of loops. The numbering of gates is something you see in other loop genres, and is a fun constraint to make deductions with. Here are the rules :

Draw lines through orthogonally adjacent cells to form a directional loop, starting at the circle.

- The loop cannot branch off or cross itself.

- The loop cannot go through shaded cells.

- The loop must visit every gate in the order denoted by the numbers. Some gates have an unknown number.

- The loop cannot turn while traveling through a gate.

- A gate cannot be visited more than once.

Rules take from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

    Showing the direction isn't required for the solution, but the gates numbers must be coherent if taken the right way.

Puzzle 1 (easy to medium)

Puzzle 2 (medium)

Puzzle 3 (medium to hard)

Placement Platter #1

      Tetrochain, Tren, RGB Akari, W.Briquet and Hebi-Ichigo : finally, we are serving a batch of Object Placement puzzles. These are the most diverse in shapes and rulesets, and may need to be studied before attempting big puzzles. Only Hebi-Ichigo is tougher than what I can recommend for beginners, and Iwa Daigeki has plenty of smaller, easier ones if you don't want to leave this one out. Tetrochain CBT is a twist I like with Tetrochain, you can check the puzzles I've made with the tags on the right. I promise posts focusing on one type will return.

     Thanks to Wisteria for testing the RGB Akari, and Wessel for testing the Wittgen, the Tetrochain, and attempting the Hebi.

Tetrochain (easy to medium)

Tren (medium)

RGB Akari (medium)

Wittgenstein Briquet (medium)

Hebi-Ichigo (very hard)

Some harder division puzzles !

      A smaller Division post, with Square Jam, Five Cells and Snake Pit; all in harder grades. If you want easier puzzles for a certain type, do let me know here or on Discord (@carrick22).

Square Jam (medium)

Five Cells (medium to hard)

Snake Pit (hard)

Doppelganger Puzzles #3 : Compass/Mukkonn Enn

     Here is yet another doppel, but using two new rulesets : Mukkonn Enn and Compass. While Mukkonn Enn is a loop genre, Compass is a region division type. But the clues in these puzzles always work the same, reffering to the 4 directions from itself. Here are the rules :

Mukkonn Enn :

Draw a loop that goes through every cell.

- The loop cannot branch off or cross itself.

- When the loop exits a clued cell from a side with a number, it must travel in a straight line for the indicated number of cells, and then turn. e.g. A number 1 means that the loop must turn immediately after leaving that cell. Numbers that aren't visited are meaningless.

Compass :

Draw lines over the dotted lines to divide the board into several blocks.

- Each block contains exactly one cell with a compass (clued cell).

- A number in a compass indicates how many cells belong to its region that are further in the indicated direction than the compass itself.

Rules taken from puzz.link > ME and Compass examples provided.

     I find both puzzle types enjoyable, but making a doppel will make some clues stick out for Compass and some for Mukkonn Enn (both are needed, but you see when the clue was needed for one of the genres).

Mukkonn Enn (easy to medium)

Compass (medium)

Loop Lunch #2

     We're featuring new Loop puzzles today. Namely, Slalom, Yajilin (help me), Ice Walk, Mukkonn Enn and Kouchoku. Again, rules are on the "Help" sections if you don't know one of these. 

     Mukkonn Enn was recently added to the puzz.link tool and will be featured again in a Doppel puzzle. Kouchoku is definetly not beginner-friendly because of its crossing nature, but the puzzle should still be reasonable.

    Thanks to Wessel for testing the Kouchoku.

Slalom (easy)

Yajilin (easy to medium)

Ice Walk (easy to medium)

Mukkonn Enn (medium)

Kouchoku (medium to hard)

Doppelganger Puzzles #2 : Aqre/Heyawake

    Here is another Heyawake/Aqre Doppel, you can find a smaller and easier one here.

Heyawake (easy to medium)

Aqre (medium)

RGB Akari 🔴💡🟢💡🔵

     Yesterday, we took a glance at Akari puzzles. While the genre is fun to solve at all levels, it's still fairly restricted in terms of inputs (as you only place lightsbulbs in some cells), compared to types like Sudoku or Hakkyu (with numbers). Here is a very recent way to dirversify the solving of Akari : RGB Akari ! Created a week ago by Jubale & Jolson, here are the rules :

Place red, green and blue lightbulbs in some cells of the grid.

- Lightbulbs illuminate cells in the same row and column it's in, stopping at the edge of the grid or a black cell.

- Every white cell is illuminated by at least one lightbulb.

- No two lightbulbs illuminate each other.

- Numbers in black cells represent the numbers of lightbulbs in the 4 adjacent cells.

- Colored tiles must be illuminated with the corresponding light color(s). Lightbulbs may be placed over tiles.

 Rules rewritten from Kudamono > click here for illustrations of the rules.

Here is a color chart to make sure mixed colors are clear for you :

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (medium)

Puzzle 3 (medium)

Akari 💡⬛

     Akari is an object placement genre, where you illuminate the grid by placing lights sources. Here are the rules :

Place lights in some empty cells so that every white cell is illuminated.

- Lights illuminate the cell they’re in as well as all cells seen in a straight line horizontally or vertically, until obstructed by a black cell.

- Lights may not illuminate each other.

- Clues represent the number of lights in the (up to) four cells surrounding the clue.

Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

     The rules gives way for big grids that can solve quickly, so don't be afraid when the 2nd puzzle is a 20x20 grid. RGB variant will be published tomorrow.

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (easy to medium)

Puzzle 3 (medium)

Doppelganger Puzzles #1 : Aqre/Heyawake

     Today we are featuring a concept of puzzles that require very thoughful crafting : Doppelgangers (Doppels for short). The concept is simple : A puzzle that can be solved with 2 or more rulesets. So here is a small Aqre/Heyawake doppel. More puzzle of this type will be featured, but it's quite hard to find rulesets that can work together. Yes, the Aqre looks awful, but there is only one crucial step at the start so it's rated quite low.

Heyawake (very easy)

Aqre (medium)

Big Rectislider

     A big puzzle following this post. Should be of medium to hard difficulty. Rules on the linked post.

Puzz.link interface

Rectangle Slider ⬛➡

    Today we are covering Rectangle Slider, a moving object puzzle (subgenre of object placement). Solving on paper is definetly a hassle, so puzz.link is a great tool for these. Here are the rules :

Draw lines to move some of the panels.

- A panel can be moved horizontally or vertically, but cannot make a turn.

- Movement lines cannot cross or overlap each other. Lines can also not go through the start- or endpoint of other panels.

- A number indicates how many spaces the panel must move.

- Panels must be orthogonally adjacent to at least one other panel.

- All panels must form filled rectangles or squares.

Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (easy to medium)

Puzzle 3 (medium)

Masyu #2

      Antoher Masyu post. I managed to make harder puzzles using chains of clues that create deeper logic. Hopefully you can solve all of them after the previous puzzles here (1) and here (3), but chack the puzz.link database for more (especially bigger ones) to get used to it.

     Rules for the puzzle on this post.

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (easy)

Puzzle 3 (medium)

Puzzle 4 (hard)

Door Hinge 🚪

    Door Hinge (Chiyotsui in japanese) is a shading puzzle that cleverly uses region borders as clues. This puzzle type was covered previously here. Here are the rules :

Shade some cells on the board.

- A group of orthogonally connected shaded cells is called a block. Each block is cut exactly once by a single straight segment of region borders, across which it must have reflectional symmetry.

- Numbered regions must contain the indicated amount of shaded cells.

Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.

   The name comes from blocks of blacks cells behaving akin to door handles as they poke out the door from both side at the same point with the same shape (thus the reflection across borders).

Puzzle 1 (easy)

Puzzle 2 (easy)

Puzzle 3 (medium to hard)

Puzzle 4 (hard)