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.