Puzzlerium tour: Pentominous (Cipher/Borders)

 Finally, it is time to end the year.

Rules: Divide the grid into some Pentomino shapes along the gridlines. The shapes may be used more than once, with rotations and reflections allowed. Identical shapes may not touch each other through the edges. Letters indicate that the corresponding cells are used by the shapes the letters usually represent. However, each letter is encrypted using a letter, each different given letter mapping to a different letter. The original letter for one of the given letters is already revealed below the grid.  Also, some borders are given.

Puzzlerium tour: Divisive Loop

 

Rules: Draw a loop that visits all of the outlined regions, entering and exiting each region  twice. The loop may not intersect itself or pass through a cell more than once. Within each region, the two blocks of consecutively visited cells do not share cell borders with each other. 

About :  Divisive Loop was invented by Anurag Sahay, and debuts with this puzzle.

Second Puzzlerium Optimization Championship : Results

Vladimir Burik won a second straight title. He found optimal solutions to 4 of the 6 puzzles and yet managed to win comfortably, a ghastly downside of inadequate participation. Detailed results were posted a few days ago on the LM forum. The best solutions and results table can be found here. 

Puzzlerium tour: Yajilin

Rules: Shade some cells and draw a single closed loop through all remaining white cells, the loop's path moving horizontally  or vertically through cell centers. Clue cells may not be shaded. The loop may not intersect itself,  or go through a cell more than once. Shaded cells cannot share an edge with each other. Some cells contain a number and arrow, or a question mark, and may not be part of the loop. Numbered arrows in such cells indicate

the total number of shaded cells in the direction of the arrow.

Puzzlerium tour: The Inner World

In recent years, we have been overwhelmed with puzzle inventions that have (sometimes incomprehensibly) complex rules. I am inclined to believe this puzzle doesn't exceed the complexity threshold. 

Rules: Draw a single loop by joining some of the vertices. The loop may not touch or cross itself. Each of the given numbers tells how many of the four surrounding edges are used. Also, divide the entire region inside the loop into sub-regions that are one cell or larger in size. Given numbers (in the interior of the loop) must equal the size (in number of cells) of the region they are in. No two regions of the same size may share an edge. It is possible that there exist regions without any given numbers.

About : The Inner world was invented by Anurag Sahay, and debuts with this puzzle.

Puzzlerium tour: Cave (LITSO)

Today's offering is an unmissable cave puzzle that has regions as givens.

 

Rules: Shade in exactly four cells in each bold outlined region, to leave behind a single connected group of shaded cells, with no enclosed, unshaded cells. In other words, all unshaded cells must be connected through other unshaded cells to an edge of the grid. Also, it must be possible to split the shaded region into tetrominoes L, I, T ,S and O, each shape contained in one outlined region, such that no two identical tetrominoes share an edge. 

Puzzlerium tour: Kakuro (Extra-digit)

Today's extraordinary puzzle is a Kakuro with extra digits.  

Rules: Fill in each white cell with one or two digits from 1 to 9. The sum of all of the numbers in every across or down row of uninterrupted white cells (including 'sum' of one number) must be equal to the clue given to the left or the top. If there are

two digits in a cell, they form a two-digit number. No digits may be repeated

within an uninterrupted row. No more than one cell in an uninterrupted row may contain two digits. Not all of the uninterrupted rows are required to contain an extra digit.

About : Kakuro (Extra-digit) was invented by Anurag Sahay and debuts with this puzzle.

Puzzlerium tour: Battleships (Invasion)

 

Rules: Locate the given fleet of 11 ships (including the 4x4 alien ship) into the given grid. Clues outside tell how many cells contain one of the regular ships in the corresponding row or column, but do not provide any information about the alien ship. Ships, the alien ship included, may be rotated, but may not touch each other, not even diagonally.

About : Invented by Anurag Sahay, this variant makes its debut with this post. 

Puzzlerium tour: Battleships (Cipher)

Rules: Each different letter stands for a different number and same letters stand for the same number. Find the correct match for each letter, then solve the battleships puzzle. 

Battleships rules: Locate the standard fleet of 10 ships into the given grid. Clues outside tell how many cells contain a ship the corresponding row or column. Ships may be rotated, but may not touch each other, not even diagonally.

About : It is believed that Battleships, in its earliest form, was invented by Jaime Poniachik in 1982.

Puzzlerium tour: Pentomino Areas

Pentomino Areas is an adaptation of the "Penta" puzzle, where outside clues are discarded and the grid is subdivided into regions to enforce new constraints on the pentomino shapes. Although I was not the first to write a Pentomino Areas puzzle, I certainly did bring it to the fore, inspiring several other Pentomino Areas works that followed. 

This enchanting genre opens up avenues for applying solving strategies generally not available to Penta. Quickly listing them down, one can most often do with three methods:

1. Identifying triples/quadruples that are the only possible shapes some of the regions can accommodate, leading to elimination through exhaustion (this is a dynamic list changing as you fill the regions) 

2. Marking cells that cannot be used by any shape.

3. Identifying the regions where a certain constrained shape can fit in.

Rules:  Place the full set of pentominoes into a 12x12 grid, one per bold outlined

region, with rotations and reflections allowed. Pentominoes cannot touch each other, not even diagonally. Also, each pentomino must be fully contained in its

containing region.

Puzzlerium tour: A thriller, a glaring divide, and a Permaculture puzzle

As the US election develops into a thriller and exposes the long-running deep divide, I couldn't think of a puzzle better than Permaculture for the occasion, which combines two puzzles into a single grid, dividing the grid in two. If the head of a state could influence rising Covid numbers, like in India (with all the superstitious histrionics) and in the USA, these leaders are only deserving of the IG award that 7 of them won this year. 

Rules: 

General Permaculture rules: Divide the grid into two parts, along the provided dotted lines only, so that each part contains one of the given puzzle types. Within each part all cells must be connected, and each cell must belong to exactly one part. It is possible that one part completely surrounds the other. Aside from this division, the parts are completely independent and do not interact with each other.

Solve one part as a "Single entry" puzzle (Draw a single loop that passes horizontally or vertically through the cell borders and visits all of the cells exactly once. Each outlined region must be visited exactly once), and the other part as a "Pentominous fragments" puzzle (Club two or more outlined regions to form some Pentomino shapes. The shapes may be used more than once, with rotations and reflections allowed. Identical shapes may not touch each other through the edges. Rotations and reflections are considered the same shape).

Puzzlerium tour: Wrong Side

Today's delectable offering from the Puzzlerium is a loop/object placement genre. 

Wrong side is an offence that does not exist in most parts of the world. Where I live is an incredible exception to that, so much so that it is as prevalent as the virus is in the US, and everyday offenders as common (or more) as their counterparts in the United States. I am a crusader of the cause and perhaps the one to have perpetrated a so-called 'drive' that, nevertheless, wasn't fruitful and faded away as would be expected.

On a related note, millions of morons on the planet "celebrate" festivals like Diwali and Christmas and what not, fireworks being a staple on such occasions. I take pride in the fact that I was born with a sense of responsibility, and had set a glorious example in self-abstaining from this criminal menace when I was far from half as old as I am. 

Rules: Locate some dominoes (apartments) into the grid. Dominoes may not touch each other, not even diagonally. Numbers outside tell how many of the cells in the corresponding row or column are occupied by dominoes. Then draw a loop that does not go through either of the two cells along the wrong side of any of the dominoes, but visits both of the cells along the other side. A domino's two sides are the two parallel longer sides, one of them being the "wrong side". Cells with a water mark are parks that will not be on the loop's path.

About : Invented by Anurag Sahay, Wrong Side debuts with this post.

Puzzlerium tour: Interior Illumination

 

Rules:  Place some light bulbs into each of the bold outlined rooms, one per cell, such that all of the cells in the grid are illuminated. Bulbs illuminate cells within their containing room only, and only those that are in the same row or column. No two bulbs may illuminate each other - two bulbs may not be placed in the same row or column within their room. Each number indicates how many bulbs are contained in the corresponding room. 

About : Invented by Anurag Sahay, Interior Illumination debuts with this post.

Puzzlerium tour: Wordspan

The date of publish has to be quite a coincidence. 

Rules: Enter all of the given words to form a crossword. Words may not repeat and must read across or down. Each word spans (is contained in) only up to two bold outlined regions. 

About : Wordspan was invented by Anurag Sahay, and debuts with this post.

Second Puzzlerium Optimization Championship: 7 days to go and a prize for the winner!

A week ago, I started the second POC. This is to remind you that you still have a week's time to deal with the challenge. 

As an incentive, the winner will now receive two hand-crafted puzzles:  a 22x22 Tapa, and a surprise puzzle with his/her name inscribed on it. 

Puzzlerium tour: Casino Sudoku

 

Rules: Place a digit in each cell, such that every row, column and 3x3 box contains each of the digits from 1 to 9 exactly once. A pointer is placed in some cells, with a direction given. Rotate the pointer 45 degrees clockwise as many times as the digit placed in the cell containing it. The final direction pointed to, contains at least one instance of the digit in placed that cell.

About : Casino Sudoku is due to Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium tour: Pentopia X

Pentopia X is a diagonal variant of Pentopia whose vision extends upto all of the eight directions.

Rules: Place some (or all) of the pentomino shapes, without repetitions (rotations and reflections are considered the same shape), and with rotations and reflections allowed. The shapes may not touch each other, not even diagonally. Arrows point in all of the eight possible directions (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) where pentomino segments are closest to that cell. 

About Pentopia X: Although the Pentopia X variant was (possibly) first explored by Anurag Sahay, Pentopia in its  original form was invented by Bram De Laat, who was probably inspired by a loop puzzle called Myopia.

Puzzlerium Tour: Pentominous Borders

My heart goes out to those children who have had to deal with dyslexia at some point of time in their lives.

Rules: Divide the grid into some of the given Pentomino shapes along the gridlines. The shapes may be used more than once, with rotations and reflections allowed. Identical shapes may not touch each other through the edges. Some borders are already given.

Puzzlerium Tour: TomTom

 Rules: Insert a digit from the given range into each cell so that no digit repeats in any row or column. The clue in each outlined cage indicates the result of a mathematical operation applied successively to each of the digits in the cage, starting from the largest to the smallest for division and subtraction. The operation may or may not be given in the cage, but at least one of the four operations must apply. Digits can repeat within a cage.

About TomTom: Invented and pioneered by Thomas Snyder, TomTom was a natural and welcome adaptation of KenKen.

Second Puzzlerium Optimization Championship

POC 2 has begun. Interested competitors may receive the competition file on writing an email to me. All necessary instructions and puzzles are available in the competition file. The championship runs till the 2nd of November.

Puzzlerium tour: Paint by Neighbor

For any interested readers: The POC will return tomorrow. More details have been published earlier.

This puzzle was originally titled "Covalency", before I reminded myself that I should be using more "appropriate" titles and themes to not give a chance to problem creators. 

Memorizing the Pentomino (and tetromino) shapes helps a lot with these puzzles and today's puzzle is no exception. Paint by Neighbor is however different, in that, it goes a step further on this and requires one to also mind how many "neighbors" each of the shapes' unit squares have. 

The endearing introductory puzzle uses Tetromino shapes (one set of five unique shapes). Second, to be published tomorrow, will use Pentomino shapes.

Rules: Shade in some cells such that all of the shaded cells form the given shapes, without repetition, and with rotation and reflection allowed. All shapes must be used. Shapes cannot be orthogonally adjacent to each other. In the end, all unshaded cells must be connected in a single group through other unshaded cells. Numbers outside the grid tell that the corresponding row or column contains at least 'n' shaded cells in the given order, each orthogonally adjacent to as many shaded cells as indicated by the number, where 'n' is the number of clues outside. There can be no other shaded cell in between the cells described by the clues. However, there could be more shaded cells before and after, not described by the clue.

About Paint by Neighbor: Paint by Neighbor was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: Nanro Construction

The imaginary Puzzlerium team conspired to put together an idea that literally asks to construct a puzzle by erasing a few misleading givens. 

Rules: The given grid contains an even number of outlined areas, each of which has to amalgamate with one adjoining area. When you have got all of the areas correct, the result is a standard Nanro puzzle that is uniquely solvable. Cells with an 'X' cannot contain numbers.

Nanro: Insert a number into some of the cells so that each outlined area contains at least one number which represents the number of cells containing a number in that area. Where two numbers connect across a boundary between areas, those numbers must be different. All numbers must form one, connected area with no 2x2 areas of numbered cells.

About Nanro Construction: Nanro construction is due to Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: Skyscrapers

As the player from Puzzlerium recovers from an arduous trek, he is now handed another taxing task, that of erecting several skyscrapers in the neighborhood. Feeling for him, I assured him that it wasn't going to be so hard. 

This is also the first number placement puzzle on the series.

Rules: Place a number from 1 to N into each cell of the square grid  so that each number appears exactly once in each row and column, where N is the length of the square's side. Each number represents a skyscraper of its respective height. The clues outside the grid indicate how many skyscrapers can be seen in that direction; smaller skyscrapers are hidden behind higher ones. 

Puzzlerium Tour: Tolerance Trek

It is believed that tolerance tests produce great results. This is a loop/path genre that combines a maze-like clue style with the usual loop. If the LITS variant was an aesthetic low, this puzzle makes me (and I hope the consumer too) only happier.

The lone and tested soul inhabiting Puzzlerium is now handed another tolerance test - the task of completing a dangerous trek - while abiding by a set of constraints. As he crosses each terrain, the terrains grow longer, and the trek murkier, so to speak. Is help in sight? Read on to know what the constraints are.

Rules: Draw a loop that visits all but one of the outlined regions (terrains). Which region will be left unvisited will have to be determined as a part of the solve. The loop cannot intersect itself or pass through a cell more than once. The loop also cannot pass through a region more than once. Along the path of the loop, the loop has to use consecutively increasing number of cells in each subsequent region visited, like 1, 2, 3, 4... and so on upto N-1 and then back to the first region, where N is the number of regions. Bold edges can't be crossed through when both cells on either side of the edge are in the same region.

  About Tolerance Trek: Invented by Anurag Sahay in 2020, Tolerance trek debuts with this post.

Puzzlerium Tour: LITS (Dead end cells)

Only now did I stumble upon a recently published LITS puzzle on GMPuzzles, and decided to write this puzzle to further annoy the commenter. 

                                  

Rules: Solve this using Standard LITS rules. The letter 'D' indicates a shaded cell that is also a dead-end cell of the tetromino that occupies the cell.

Puzzlerium Tour: Bending Scrabble

 

Rules: Enter all the words from the given list, to form a crossword. Words may not repeat and must be read across or down. Words may bend, but not more than once. Words cannot bend in the cells where they intersect with other words.  

About Bending Scrabble: Invented by Anurag Sahay, Bending Scrabble debuts with this post.

Puzzlerium Tour: Lossless Loop

Rules: Draw a loop that visits all of the outlined regions and all of the given circles. The loop cannot intersect itself or pass through a cell more than once. If there is no given circle in a region, the loop must visit that region exactly once. If there are one or more circles in a region, the loop must enter and exit the region as many times as the number of circles given, and must pass through one circle in every visit. The number of cells within the region containing a circle, used by the loop before passing through the circle, must be equal to those used after passing through the circle (including none).

  About Lossless Loop: Invented by Anurag Sahay in 2019, Lossless Loop debuts with this post.

Puzzlerium Tour: Evasive Masyu

I didn't really work on anything based on the Linesweeper style of givens in recent years - what I can recall best - so considering that I am the harbinger of Linesweeper-like puzzles, including "Linesweeper" which was apparently inspired, I thought it was best to finally try something again. Hitherto, I don't know of any Masyusweeper, not at least with the exact ruleset that today's puzzle brings. Therefore, I believe that I can claim originality. I started constructing trying not to create an obvious break-in, but nonetheless, this one has shaped up into one with a delicious logical path.

Rules: Draw a single loop that passes orthogonally through the centres of cells, and does not intersect itself or enter the same cell more than once. The loop may either go through the pearls or not.  When it visits a pearl, the following rules apply: The loop must go straight through the cells with white circles, making a turn in at least one of the cells immediately before or after visiting each white circle. The loop must make a turn in all the black circles, but must go straight in both cells immediately before and after visiting each black circle.

  When it does not, the following rules apply: 

For pearls of each color, the number of neighboring cells used by the loop must be equal to the number given on top of the puzzle grid.

About Evasive Masyu: This is a variant of Masyu, a Nikoli puzzle. Evasive Masyu debuts today with this post.

Puzzlerium Tour: Thermo Sudoku

 I can't thank opt-pan enough, whose Penpa I have been using liberally to draw the graphics. 

If you are looking for easy Sudokus that do not need you to employ any advanced techniques whatsoever, today's puzzle is for you. I have used the same theme that was used in the Hex Slitherlink a few days ago. Although I prefer symmetry in my constructions, including Sudokus, which I rarely write, I tried a rather random layout that is anything but symmetric.

Rules: Fill in the cells digits from 1 to 9 so that no digit repeats in any row, column or bold outlined region. In each of the thermometer shapes, digits must increase strictly from the rounded bulb to the flat end..    

Puzzlerium Tour: Irregular Hex Slitherlink

Although the puzzle is on a smaller, if not much smaller, than usual hex grids, I hope that the theme does not lose itself in the solve. Nothing remarkable is happening in this puzzle except for the theme, which is really why I am publishing this puzzle. On hex grids, Slitherlink works in a tad different way, in that, each cell has 2 more surrounding edges, and consequently a few more neighbors than in square grids. Secondly, as there are only 3 grid edges meeting at a point, there is really no possibility of two different subsections of the loop "meeting at a point" - usually a very useful meta logic in square grids to see that the move is wrong. 

Rules: Draw a single closed loop by connecting neighboring grid points along the grid lines. Each numbered cell or irregular group of cells indicates how many of its bounding edges are used by the loop.

About HexSlithehrlink:  Slitherlink was invented by Nikoli puzzles. Several of its variations have been explored since, some of them being Hex, Sheep and wolves, False clue, Polygraph, Irregular and more.

    

Puzzlerium Tour: Estate Lawns

Rules: Shade in some cells, so that all of the unshaded cells form a single region of contiguous cells. Numbers in bold outlined regions indicate how many blocks of contiguous unshaded cells (including unit cell blocks), ignoring unshaded cells in other regions, are in that region. Such unshaded cell blocks in different regions cannot be of the same size when they are touching each other orthogonally through region borders.

About Estate Lawns: Invented by Anurag Sahay, Estate Lawns debuts with the above puzzle. 

    

Puzzlerium Tour: Perfectland

Perfectland is as much a region division puzzle as it is a path puzzle. I reckon it comes closest to "Cave" in its feel. Instructions get slightly on the longer side, but it is only comforting that some Nikoli puzzles have instructions that are longer than this.

Rules: 

1.The grid contains symbols of three kinds, each representing living spaces. The task is to divide the grid along the gridlines into regions that enclose exactly one instance of each of the three symbols, so that a straight line path can be drawn in each region that visits each of the symbols without having to branch out, and starts and ends in one of the symbols. Some region borders may already be given.

2. No region may fully enclose any 2x2 areas of cells. In each region, there must be at least one cell not visited by the path (representing unused areas), and all such cells in the entire grid must be connected in a single group.

3. Unused cells cannot be scattered within a region - all of the unused cells in a given region must be connected in a single group. 

About Perfectland: Invented by Anurag Sahay, Perfectland was first published in 2020 (see example below to better understand how it works). 

    

Puzzlerium Tour: Pentapa

I don't enjoy constructing any Tapa variant as much as Pentapa or Tapa Logic, both of which were some of the earliest of Tapa variants known to be explored. This exquisite Pentapa works on a brilliant deduction around a single shape.

Rules: Paint some squares to create a continuous wall of connected cells. Number(s) in a cell indicates how many painted cells are contained in a continuous black cell block in its surrounding cells. If there is more than one number in the cell, there has to be at least one white cell separating the black cell blocks. Painted cells cannot form a 2x2 cell. Numbered cells cannot be painted. It must be possible to find all the pentomino shapes, without repetition, using only the painted cells, every painted cell used by exactly one shape. There cannot be any painted cell that is not part of any Pentomino. 

Puzzlerium Tour: Pento-Go-Round

Pentominous was perhaps the best of region division puzzles introduced this decade. The puzzle I am introducing here draws upon Pentominous. 

 

Rules: Divide the grid into some pentomino shapes along the gird lines. The shapes may be used more than once, with rotations and reflections allowed. Identical shapes may not touch each other through the edges. Given letters must be contained in the shape that they represent. Then draw a loop that moves horizontally or vertically between cell centres, and enters and exits every Pentomino exactly once. Shaded cells, if any, cannot be used by the loop. Given numbers indicate that the loop uses that many cells of the Pentomino containing the number. 

Puzzlerium Tour: Snakeout

The Puzzlerium channel does not have followers yet. These puzzles and videos are of good quality. So, do subscribe. I do everything myself - from construction to testing to shooting and editing. 

 

Rules: Place a snake whose path is 1-cell wide. The snake does not touch itself, not even diagonally. In the end, no two white cells in the same row or column can contain the same number. Two orthogonally adjacent cells with the same number cannot both be used by the snake.

About Snakeout: Snakeout is due to Anurag Sahay. It was first published in 2019.

Puzzlerium Tour: Rekuto

Rekuto is one of those puzzles that have remained low among other more popular ones. Nevertheless, I thought it was worth including in the tour and so I wrote one. This puzzle will also attract a solving video. 

  

Rules: Divide the grid into rectangles such that each rectangle contains exactly one given number that represents the sum of the width and length of the rectangle. Each cell in the grid must be part of a rectangle.

About Rekuto: Another Nikoli style, this region division puzzle has remained under the shadow of its cousin Shikaku, so much so that more information seems elusive.

Puzzlerium Tour: Interstellar

Rules: Draw a closed loop whose path does not branch out or intersect itself, and passes through the centres of some of the cells horizontally or vertically. The loop must enter and exit some of  the outlined regions exactly once, pass through all of the cells in every such region, and leave the entirety of the rest of the regions. Then, place one star in each of the regions that the loop does not pass through. Stars cannot touch each other, not even diagonally. None of the rows or columns may contain more than one star each.

About Interstellar: Invented by Anurag Sahay, Interstellar debuts with the puzzle published in this post.

Puzzlerium Tour: Ripple Loop

 

Rules: Draw a closed loop that connects the centres of all cells horizontally or vertically. When two circles are edge-adjacent, the loop must go straight through one, and make a right angle turn in the other.

About Ripple Loop: Invented by Anurag Sahay, Ripple loop was first published in 2017.

Puzzlerium Tour: Statue Park (Tapa-like clues)

Today's offering from Puzzlerium is a Statue Park puzzle, albeit with a different presentation. It pains me that even to this day, puzzles involving Pentomino shapes don't really enjoy the same status as some Number placement puzzles do. Statue Park, a puzzle that deals with Pentomino shapes, has been on the scene for nearly a decade now. Although it doesn't really need to be tweaked further for what it is, here is my version of Statue Park when it crosses over with Tapa, in a loose sense of that. 

Note that while Statue Park asks us to use ALL of the shapes given, I rather thought this variant was more fun without that constraint. I believe I am the first to explore this variant, unless I am missing something.

So, here is what the rules look like: 

Rules: Shade in some cells such that all of the shaded cells form some (or all) of the given shapes, without repetition, and with rotation and reflection allowed. Shapes cannot be orthogonally adjacent to each other. In the end, all unshaded cells must be connected in a single group through other unshaded cells. Numbers in a cell indicate how many Pentomino cells are contained in a continuous shaded cell block in its surrounding cells. If there is more than one number in the clue cell, there has to be at least one white cell separating the black cell blocks

About Statue Park: Statue Park was invented by Palmer Mebane and was first published in 2011.

Puzzlerium Tour: Heterocut

 Solution walkthrough for the Nurikabe is now online:

Rules: Divide the grid into some regions. No two regions can have the same shape; rotations and reflections are considered the same shape. Some borders are already given. Arrows on these borders (where given) always point to the larger of the two regions. All region sizes are in the given range.

About Heterocut: Heterocut was invented by Anurag Sahay, and was first published in 2008.

Walkthrough video for today's Heterocut puzzle is linked here:

 

Puzzlerium Tour: Nurikabe

Solution walkthrough for the Shikaku Fillomino is now online:

https://youtu.be/v3DYPfqWy38

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells are connected and no 2×2 square is completely shaded. Cells with numbers cannot be shaded. Each group of connected unshaded cells forms an island; islands can touch each other diagonally. Each island must contain exactly one number that is equal to the size of that island.

About Nurikabe: This genre was invented by Nikoli Puzzles. Nurikabe was first published by Nikoli in 1991.

Enjoy this Nurikabe and expect a video walkthrough along with the next puzzle soon.

 

Puzzlerium Tour: Shikaku Fillomino

Today's offering from the Puzzlerium is a couple of back-to-back puzzles. First up is a hybrid between Shikaku and Fillomino. Fillomino is a favorite region division puzzle. Ever since I was enticed by this genre, I have written dozens of fillomino puzzles and I can't  get enough of it. Shikaku is one puzzle that most of us don't find very interesting in the classic form, while it's mutations and hybrids can change that in many ways.

I wanted to make the most of what Geometry can do in a Shikaku Fillomino and the puzzle I am presenting here seems to have met my expectations.   

Rules: Divide the grid along the gridlines into some regions, and fill each of the empty cells with a number. When two cells containing the same number touch along an edge, they must belong to the same region. Given numbers represent the area of the region they belong to. A region may contain none, or one or more of the givens. All regions need to be rectangular (as in Shikaku).

Solution videos for the Slitherlink and Go Square puzzles are linked here:

https://youtu.be/xiGVkWNz2WU

https://youtu.be/QQo0pbd5W-4

Up next on the series is a delightful Nurikabe that should be available later today, and should I find time, walkthrough videos for both the Fillomino and Nurikabe should be out in the same post. 

Puzzlerium Tour: Go Square

Solution video for today's puzzle as well as for the Slitherlink should be out soon. Next on the series is a region division puzzle that is a hybrid between two Nikoli puzzles, which will then be followed by an engrossing Tapa.

Rules: Draw a single loop that has an orthogonal path and visits all cells exactly once each. Numbers indicate how many 2x2 squares in the corresponding outlined region have all of their four cells visited in immediate succession to each other. 

About Go Square: Go Square is due to Anurag Sahay, and debuts with the puzzle published in this post.

Puzzlerium Tour: Slitherlink

Update:

As I resume posting here, albeit with a new dimension to it, I will also have any interested viewers know that the POC (Puzzlerium Optimization Championship) shall be back with another bunch of delightful optimizers in late September. There would be several logical challenges, each on a grid no larger than 12x12 in size. So, if you are looking to put your logical and optimization skills and endurance to test, you want to try this.

Today's puzzle is the first in a series of puzzles that would constitute most of the content to be posted here henceforth. The idea here is to write and post puzzles that involve interesting solution paths and take the viewer through the solution using a video walkthrough that may help understand some of the logical methods.

You will see a link to the solution video tomorrow. Next puzzle on the series will be available soon. 

Rules: Draw a single loop by joining some of the dots. The loop cannot touch or cross itself. Numbers indicate how many of the four surrounding edges are used.

About Slitherlink: This genre was invented by Nikoli Puzzles. The first known Slitherlink puzzle was published in 1989.