Category Archives: Pencil Puzzles

Puzzle 32: Two New Recruits

Surveyors Heyawake, now with additional two types of clues and a change in rules. Read.

Shade some cells black such that:
– No two black cells are orthogonally adjacent
– All white cells form a single polyomino
– No line of contiguous white cells span over 2 or more room borders (thick borders)

Additionally, there are two types of clues: in-grid and out-grid. (Names in brackets tell the name of the clues. Yes, they are now canonized.)
– In-grid clues may refer to the number of black squares in the room (region bordered by thick border) (Heyawake) or the number of black squares in the 3×3 square centered at the square containing the clue (Minesweeper). There can be at most 1 Heyawake clue in a region.
– Out-grid clues may refer to the number of black squares in the row/column (Tents) or the length of some line of maximum contiguous white cells in the row/column (Freedom). There can be at most 1 Tents clue in a row/column.

By maximum contiguous white cells I mean that it cannot be extended; it’s bounded by either the grid’s boundary or some black cell.

Note that it’s possible for a region to have clues but none of them are Heyawake, and for a row/column to have clues but none of them are Tents.

As the popularity of the surveyor job skyrockets, new positions appear. As reported in the headlines, two new positions that work from outside the complex are now available; one reports the number of obstructions in the line of sight and the other reports one of the freedoms instead. As usual, they mix together, making it pretty much impossible to tell them apart.

Your task stays the same. Our surveyors have done their jobs dutifully; now your task is to reveal the traps. Rated medium-hard.

Puzzle 32: Two New Recruits
Surveyors Heyawake v2

A gift for David Millar (thegriddle.net), as the second person to complete Puzzle 25 (linked above). He wanted Surveyors Heyawake with a new twist. I added several (depending on how you define a “twist”). Enjoy!

The next puzzle (okay, one of Puzzle 33-35) will be the gift to the third solver. Yes, Puzzle 25’s offer has ended. Time to make a new offer 😛

Puzzle 31: Hey People Redux

Akari. Put light bulbs. A light bulb illuminates unobstructed white cells in the four cardinal directions (up, down, left, right). A light bulb may not be illuminated by another light bulb. A number means that there are that many light bulbs in the four cells orthogonally adjacent to that cell.

Because Yoshi is bored, he decides to make a blog and post puzzles in it. However, his first puzzle is aesthetically unpleasant, so this Shaymin decides to fix it a bit… “Rated medium!” the Shaymin exclaims.

Puzzle 31: Hey People Redux
Akari

Employing a very unusual opening allows this puzzle to have both great aesthetics (intended) and a tough-looking puzzle (not intended). Well, good luck. Bifurcation (aka trial-and-error) will easily destroy this apart, but can you get that cool opening?

Puzzle 30: Mini Legendaries, Maxi Pranks

Our six mini legendaries (Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, Victini) have mastered the art of transforming. Each of these six legendaries decided to trick Arceus, transforming to the others for the five work days. Since Arceus doesn’t have good logic (Uxie holds it), it asks you for help. Can you help the God of Pokemon tackling this medium mishap?

Basic facts:
1. There are six mini legendaries: Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, Victini.
2. There are five work days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, in that order from earliest to latest. Each of the work days are separated by a day; that is, Tuesday is 1 day after Monday, Wednesday is 2 days before Friday, and so on.
3. In each work day, each legendary transforms to exactly one of themselves. A legendary may “transform” to itself. No legendary may appear twice; that is, no two legendaries may both transform to the same legendary in the same day.

The puzzle:
1. Each legendary transform to five different legendaries in the week.
2. Mew and Celebi have a disagreement, and as the result, neither transforms to the other in the first three days.
3. Celebi blames the disagreement to Shaymin, and as the result, neither Mew nor Shaymin transforms to the other in the last two days.
4. On Tuesday, no legendary transforms to itself. On Thursday and Friday, each of exactly two legendaries transform to themselves. On Monday and Wednesday, exactly one legendary transforms to itself.
5. Manaphy transforms to Shaymin in some day and to Jirachi in another day. The difference between these two days is 4 days.
6. Shaymin never transforms to the legendary which never transforms to Shaymin.
7. Victini transforms to Jirachi, and Jirachi transforms to Manaphy. Both take place on Monday.
8. Shaymin transforms to Mew in some day.
9. None of Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi transforms to any of Manaphy, Shaymin, and Victini on Wednesday.

Well, good luck? It’s not that hard.

So I haven’t made one large puzzle for Puzzle 30; I can’t think of a genre. So here’s a word puzzle. I hope you know English.

I need to make more of these to practice my construction skills.

Puzzle 29: Invisible Fillocity

Fillomino Skyscrapers. Follow regular Fillomino rules. In addition, if each number is represented by a building which height is equal to the number, each number outside the grid represents the number of visible buildings when looking into the grid in that direction. A building blocks all buildings behind it which height is less than or equal to the height of this building.

Welcome to Fillocity,  city whose buildings’ heights follow Fillomino rules. The city is known for several unusually large buildings. However, we don’t quite have a map of the city yet, although we have 11 entrances into the city and reports of the number of visible buildings from each of these entrances are consistent. I hope you can figure out where things are. We would consider the difficulty of locating the buildings here medium.

Puzzle 29: Invisible Fillocity
Fillomino Skyscrapers

Story. So I now learn making short stories of 1-2 paragraphs for every puzzle. Hopefully this trend will be sustained for all next puzzles…maybe. Hm.

Also, two people have solved Puzzle 25 and have taken their rewards; Puzzle 31 or 32 will be for this second solver. One more slot to go!

Also, Puzzle 28’s ambiguity, if you get it, has been clarified. I think that’s the only ambiguity, but if there is more, tell me. Now that I’ve said that, I think this puzzle might still have some ambiguity; someone can check it?

Puzzle 28: Mashed Fillomino and Special Puzzle 6: Just Can’t Get A Clear Sky

UPDATE: Here is a new Puzzle 28, 5 months after the original. Yeah.

After a smoothie, I serve a mashed potato—err, a mashed Fillomino.

Fillomino Epic Variation. No less than four variations that made an appearance in the original Fillomino Fillia are in this puzzle: Shape, Even-Odd, Greater Than, and Sum. Follow usual Fillomino rules. In addition, the given shapes must appear in the grid without rotation (because I apparently forgot this rule when constructing, let be so), all even numbers are connected in a single polyomino and so are for odd numbers, all inequality signs must be followed by the numbers in the respective cells, and the sum of the numbers in each cage must match the given. Calling MellowMelon for a better presentation.

Puzzle 28: Mashed Fillomino
Fillomino (Epic Variation)
(click to enlarge)

UPDATE: Ambiguity acknowledged. Assume R2C2 and R3C2 have different numbers. I will soon replace the puzzle with another one which should be similar (S,H,A,P,E shapes and a certain gimmick) but better made. Most likely I’ll use givens as opposed to sum cages and greater than signs…maybe.

So, yeah. My take at a Potpourri; MellowMelon made an extremely hard one that I haven’t solved 1.5 years ago and the post is linked above.

ksun48 solved Puzzle 25, and he asked for a “hard Fillomino variation”. I hope this is sufficiently hard, since otherwise I have a harder puzzle…

Special Puzzle 6: Just Can’t Get A Clear Sky
Fillomino Epic Variation [Count Solutions]

So, what’s the puzzle? You are given a 11×11 grid of Fillomino, and the five shapes as above. The only variations applied are Shape and Star (each row/column must have two stars occupying the space of a monomino each; no two stars are adjacent even diagonally). Count the solutions, and prove it.

I guess the title helps you in some way, but you still need to prove it. Yay.

In case you missed it, I served a smoothie (Puzzle 27) a few seconds ago.

Puzzle 27: Yajilin Smoothie

Because I begin to title my puzzles, I start serving smoothies.

Yajilin, Smooth Turn variation: The loop cannot have two adjacent turns facing the same direction (aka a small U-turn).

Puzzle 27: Yajilin Smoothie
Yajilin (Smooth Variation)

Puzzle 28 should be already out by the time anyone besides me reads this.

mathgrant and MellowMelon are at it again: Fillomino Fillia 2. I will post a few Fillomino puzzles until the test ends (save for Puzzle 30, which if it’s a Fillomino will create some bad repetition (Puzzle 10 was a 17×17 Fillomino)), but not necessarily practice puzzles for the event. EDIT (05-Dec-2012): Fail. Only one Potpourri posted within time. The two authors will be posting Fillomino puzzles which will be practice puzzles. Let’s see.

Puzzle 26: Four Winds and Special Puzzle 5: Tetro Stack

Two puzzles!

Four Winds. Divide the grid into several regions; each region must contain a number in its “capital”. All other squares in the same region must be either in the same row or in the same column as the center of the capital. Each region must be connected; that is, any cell in a region must be able to be visited from any other cell in the region by moving orthogonally along the squares in the region. Each number tells the number of squares in its region excluding the capital, so a number of 0 means that the region is composed of only the cell with the number itself.

This puzzle has the Unknown and Different variants! The numbers are replaced by question marks; it’s up to you to figure out the numbers. Additionally, all the numbers must be different.

Easy to medium if you have tried Four Winds before. Otherwise, probably medium with a little spice of hard.

Puzzle 26: Four Winds (Unknown, Different)

UPDATE 26-Oct-2012 22:46 UTC+7: Fixed an ambiguity near lower-left. By changing the right part. Yay.

And the second puzzle!

Tetro Stack. Perhaps the hardest puzzle so far in this blog?

Special Puzzle 5: Tetro Stack

Why is the latter a special puzzle? It was really hard (all difficulty are in my opinion) that I think I haven’t managed to discover a logical way, and I think I haven’t tested all possibilities. I’m not even sure that it has a single solution, hence the singled puzzle. This also makes it easy to remove it if it apparently has more than one solution. Yay.

Puzzle 25: Surveyors Heyawake

Surveyors Heyawake, also known as my favorite original genre (as of the time of post). Medium, a little bit toward hard.

Puzzle 25: Surveyors Heyawake

Apparently it’s not a small-grid puzzles batch!

Who says I can’t commemorate my 25th puzzle with something special? Antisymmetry, if you look closer (opposite givens add up to 5). The regions somewhat form a windmill, although that is not really intended. Weird regions, but I believe I don’t need to instate the “white contiguous region may not span over two boundaries” rule because it’s equivalent.

So… I’m running low on ideas. The first three people who e-mail me the correct solution to this puzzle may pick a genre, to be posted before Puzzle 40.

Puzzle 23: Tetro Stack

Tetro Stack, inspired from Friedman’s Pentomino Puzzles. Put the five tetrominoes to the grid such that they don’t overlap or cover any circle. Gravity acts on these objects, so for each tetromino and circle, there is at least one square occupied by the tetromino/circle such that the square directly below it doesn’t exist (it’s on the bottommost row) or is also occupied by a tetromino. Medium?

Puzzle 23: Tetro Stack

I hope you understand my vague rules above 😛 Puzzle 24 to be posted within 10 hours.