Last puzzle. The end is very much bs but I will not be bothered to make another one of this size. Rules here.
Again, a slitherlink puzzle to showcase a type of clues : Entropic Liars. For this one, I used a combination of Entropy (Sudoku) and Knapp Daneben rulesets. Here are the rules :
Normal slitherlink rules apply, but clues may be liars. In each 2x2, at least:
- One number must be 1 lower than its actual value,
- One number must be a true value,
- One number must be 1 higher than its actual value.
No clue may be off by more than 1.
Click here for an interactive version of the example.
Thanks to Superrabbit for testing and feedback.
Another Yajilin variant, this time I dove into region clues (with rules like this regyaj) and tried to make a ruleset out of mixed arrows and regions. The result : Regional Pointers, is hard to work with, but maybe the idea can be explored further.
Yajilin rules : Each arrows bears a value equal to the number of shaded cells it sees. Arrows cannot be shaded and the loop MUST pass over arrows. For each region, the number of black cells is equal to the sum of all arrows' values.
Thanks to Menderbug and Wessel for testing and feedback.
Killer Cages : Puzzle 1 - Puzzle 2 | Regions : Puzzle 1 - Puzzle 2
The variant Slitherlink (Swapped Pairs) was created by myself on the fly during a speed setting contest. The "Swapped Pairs" could work for a lot of puzzles, I think it has potential.
Normal slitherlink rules apply. For each color, one pair of clues must have their values swapped while the other remains untouched. White clues behave normally.
Note : the first puzzle has a disconnected purple pair in 2 corners of the puzzle. These 2 single cells are considered a pair.
Second puzzle was the winner of the SSC (I labelled myself as ??? as we need to be anonymous for non-biased judging), the first one was made for this post.
Thanks to Rook, Stef, Superrabbit and TwoHoleStraw for testing and feedback on 1st puzzle, and again Superrabbit for the SSC.
An idea from Bosuonparedo on the Krazydad discord led me to create this proof-of-concept puzzle. Here are the rules :
Draw a loop through the center of all cells. The loop travels orthogonally from cell to cell.
- The loop cannot branch or cross itself.
- Clues indicate the order in which the loop passes through the cells. Cells are indexed from 1 to N (N the number of cells in the grid).
- A ? can represent any digit, but no leading ? can be zero (e.g. ?6 cannot be 06).
Thanks to Kays, Menderbug and Rook for testing and feedback.
2 more Ice and Fire puzzles for today. The first one is by MemePuzzleBot 4.0.5 (AKA Botaku on CtC). Rules here.
Thanks to Botaku for letting me share his puzzle here.
Ichimaga is a genre where you form a network by connecting circles 2 by 2. This goes in the loop category for now lol. I made these puzzles simply because there isn't many of them in the wild. Here are the rules :
Draw lines over the dotted lines to connect the circles into one network.
- A line must connect two circles, and can turn no more than once.
- Two lines are allowed to cross if they both go straight through the crossing. Lines cannot branch or otherwise overlap.
- Numbers indicate the total amount of lines that are connected to that circle.
Thanks to Kays, Stef, and Wessel for testing, help and feedback.
Following an idea cooked by my last braincell, Masyu (Foreshadowing) is a genre made in collaboration with Barbitos (who frankly just talked about foreshadow then I flipped.) This is a bad idea and in no circumstances should this by imitated at home, even if i'm not a professional to begin with. Here are the rules :
Draw a loop that goes through all pearls.
- The loop cannot cross itself or branch off.
- White pearls must be passed straight throught then at least one turn must occur immediately before or after the pearl. Black pearls must lie on a turn and the loop must go straight immediately before and after the pearl. However, some pearls may not enfore the rule immediately (see below).
- A number in a pearl indicate when the pearl rule takes place. A pearl with the number X enforces its rules on the Xth cell visited by the loop after visiting the pearl (a 0 means the rule takes place on the pearl itself.) Multiple pearls can take effect at the same time if they are of the same color.
Click here for an interactive version of the example puzzle.
Remember Length (remlen for short) is a full, oriented loop genre, invented by Palmer Mebane. This genre calls for heavy use of topology and oriented loop logic, so it isn't begginer firendly. The puzzles for today should still be accessible (at least the first one). Here are the rules :
Draw lines through orthogonally adjacent cells to form a directional loop.
- All cells must be visited.
- The loop cannot branch off or cross itself.
- Each time the loop exits a region containing a number, its visit to the next region must consist of exactly that number of cells.
Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.
I like this genre with what logic the clues can offer. I hope that these puzzles can make you appreciate the genre, if not then maybe easier puzzles could be made (these are still pretty easy for my standard though).
Thanks to Barbitos and Wessel for testing, help and feedback.
Following on Yajilin, here is a variant with uses clues related to proximity : Shade-Myopia. Apart from regular rules, the clues point in the direction(s) of the closest black cell(s) (at least one in each pointed direction). Black cells can appear in the other directions as long as the closest respect the proximity rule. Clues look horizontally and vertically in a straight line.
2 easy puzzles, I'm sure that richer logic can be made but I wanted to introduce this variant quickly, maybe a bigger, tougher puzzle will eventually come up with this ruleset.
Thanks to Wessel for testing and feedback.
Roman Loop is a loop genre I came up with in 2023, sharing my puzzles with the WSPC France discord on the 15/6/23. It's a crossing loop genre that require a good amount of pencil marks to keep track of everything. Here are the rules :
Draw a loop through the center of some cells.
- The loop may only cross in a cell by 2 straight lines.
- Numbers outside the grid evaluate the sum of the cells in their row/column. An empty cell is worth 0, a straight line is 1, a turn is 5 and a crossing is 10.
- Some cells are already filled in, there may not be any more markings in these cells.
Check this link for an interactive version of the example.
2 puzzles (the base set I shared a while back), 3 more puzzles tested by Barbitos will be released sometime in October (If I don't forget). Don't forget to check out the example.
Thanks to WSPC France discord for feedback.
Ice and Fire is a ruleset I came up with when setting SSC puzzles in the CtC server (I managed to send my entry wrong). Here are the rules :
Draw a loop passing through all numbers.
- The loop may only cross on icy cells,
- Icy cells only allows straight segments, Fire-y cells only allow turning.
- A number indicates how many cells make up the continuous white section of the loop that the number is on.
3rd puzzle is from SSC (with the correct pattern of colors lol). I will definetly play around more with these rules.
Puzzle 1 - Puzzle 2 - Puzzle 3
Numbrix is a path genre (subset of loop), but is solved by placing numbers in the grid. I'll classify it in loops and number placement (this category will come up more frequently later). Here are the rules :
Place numbers from 1 to N, N being the number of cells in the grid. Two consecutive numbers must be in orthogonally adjacent cells.
In other words, trace a path from 1 to N passing through the center of cells, not diagonally, where a cell containing X must be the Xth cell visited on the path.
3 puzzles, as they're quite easy (i'll try to set a harder one next time), I suggest taking a look at puzzle 3 even if you're not used to this genre.
Thanks to Barbitos for testing and feedback.
Kudamono : Puzzle 1 - Puzzle 2 - Puzzle 3 // Penpa+ : Puzzle 1 - Puzzle 2 - Puzzle 3
Haisu is a path genre, which is mainly considered as a subclass of loop genre. It's seems quite a whacky genre at first, and it can make you pull out your hair from setting ambiguous puzzles, but it also bring fun logic. Here are the rules :
Draw a path from S to G that goes through all cells.
- The path cannot branch off or cross itself.
- An outlined region can be entered and exited multiple times. A number N indicates that the path must go through that cell on the region's Nth visit.
Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.
2 puzzles, I strongly recommend taking the time to look at other puzzles on the database if the second one gives you trouble, it shouldn't be discouraging.
Thanks to Mender and Wessel for testing and feedback.
Regional Yajilin is a twist on Yajilin with clues layed out as areas rather than pointing cells. Here are the rules :
Shade some cells on the board, and draw a single loop that goes through all remaining cells.
- The loop cannot branch off or cross itself.
- Shaded cells cannot be orthogonally adjacent.
- A number indicates the amount of shaded cells in the outlined region.
Rules taken from puzz.link - click here for a solved example.
Just one puzzle today, shouldn't be too hard to manage if you know Yajilin.
Thanks to Wessel for testing and feedback.
Dumb joke. Dumb puzzle. Here are the rules :
Draw a loop through ALL non-black cells.
- The loop may not cross itself or visit a cell more than once.
- Numbers indicate the amount of consecutive white cells visited by the loop.
- The loop may not visit more than 2 consecutive mud (brown) cells.
- The loop may only turn on a fire (red) cell.
- The loop must go straight through black arrows.
- White arrows indicate the direction of the wind, up to the next black cell/edge of the grid. When the loop enters a row/column with wind, it must immediatly turn in its direction.
- The loop may not go against the wind.
.png)
