Puzzlerium Tour: LITS (Handicap)

Rules: Shade in some cells such that each outlined area contains four shaded cells that form a Tetromino. No 2×2 square can be shaded completely. All shapes must be connected to form a single contiguous group of shaded cells. Identical figures, regardless of rotation or reflection, cannot share an edge. 

Given numbers indicate the number of cells along the corresponding row or column used by the first tetromino encountered when looking in that direction. 

About: “LITS (Handicap)” was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: Encroaching Islands

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells are connected and no 2×2 square is completely shaded. Each group of connected unshaded cells forms an island; islands can touch each other diagonally. 

Some rectangular areas are outlined (some grid borders also overlap with the outlines). Borders of two areas do not overlap with each other. Each given rectangular area contains two islands of identical size and shape. Numbers given in the top-left corner of the parent area indicate the size of the twin islands contained in it. Islands do not use cells that belong to none of the outlined areas. Cells that are common to two or more areas can be used by islands from any of those areas. 

About: “ Encroaching Islands” was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: 2D Printing

This is a 2D Printing puzzle, a new interesting type that debuted recently. 

Rules: Draw a single, non-intersecting loop, vertically or horizontally through the centres of the cells. The path of the loop has to pass each of the edges marked with a circle. Furthermore, the portions of the loop on either side of the given circle, extending as far as before leaving the region, should both be absolutely identical in shape and length, including the directions of turns (ignoring rotations and reflections). 

About: “2D Printing” was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Results: Fifth Puzzlerium Optimization Championship

Results of the fifth edition of the Puzzlerium Optimization Championship are available. Three-time champion Vladimir Burik has triumphed again to assert that he is one of the very best in the world. 

Results table can be found here. I leave you with the best solutions - particularly the Alternating Loop, which can be described as a stunning piece of work where the theoretical maximum was achieved - and also a nice minimal expression that evaluates to 2022. The best possible solutions were reached on at least two puzzles - Minimalist 2022 and Alternating Crossing. Thanks to all the participants.

 

A better solution (Author's) with 411 points

Puzzlerium Tour: Nanrobot

Theme: Almost clueless

Rules: 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 region boundary, those numbers must be different. All numbers must form one, connected area with no 2x2 areas of numbered cells. Some numbers may already be given.

All identical (identical both in shape and size) areas must contain the same number. Different areas must contain different numbers.

About Nanrobot: Conceived by Anurag Sahay, Nanrobot is a variation on Nanro.

Puzzlerium tour: Star Battle

  

Rules: Place three stars in ecah row, column and bold outlined region. Cells with stars cannot be adjacent to each other, not even diagonally.

Puzzlerium tour: Minimalist Architecture

 

Rules: Shade in some cells in each outlined room so that it is possible to navigate through all of the unshaded cells within each room in single orthogonal paths. Also, within each room, all shaded cells must be orthogonally connected in a single block. Shaded cells from different rooms cannot be adjacent to each other.

About: "Minimalist Architecture" was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: Spheres of Influence

 

Rules: Shade in some cells so that all shaded cells are connected orthogonally in a single group and no 2×2 square is completely shaded. There can be no islands -enclosed areas of one or more unshaded cells - all unshaded cells should be accessible to the grid borders through other unshaded cells. Black circle indicates that cells on either side of the edge are both shaded and each of the two shaded cells has at least one shaded neighbor not counting the cell across the circle. White circles add no such constraint, but, exactly one of the two cells on its sides need be shaded.

About: "Spheres of Influence" was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: Peculiar Loop

   

Theme: Rectangles

Rules: Draw a single, non-intersecting loop, vertically or horizontally through the centres of all cells. The loop only passes through each outlined region an odd number of times; no region can be visited 2 times or 4 times and so on. Given numbers, if any, indicate the number of visits in that region.

About: “Peculiar Loop” was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium Tour: Tapa (Cipher)

  

Theme: Tapa

Rules: Paint some squares to create a continuous wall of connected cells. Letter(s) in a cell indicate how many painted cells are contained in a continuous black cell block in its surrounding cells. If there is more than one letter in the cell, there has to be at least one white cell separating the black cell blocks. Painted cells cannot form a 2x2 cell. Clue Cells cannot be painted. Each different letter stands for a different non-zero number.

Puzzlerium tour: Interference

Rules: Place all twelve pentomino shapes - once each - leaving the clue cells unused. Pentominoes may be rotated and reflected but may not touch each other, not even diagonally. Draw a vertical or horizontal line between each pair of pentominoes - starting and ending in the shapes, only passing through empty cells in between (including the clue cell), such that given number tells the length of the line connecting the shapes. Each line connects two shapes; each line must intersect one line, forming pairs of intersecting lines. Lines from one pair cannot intersect lines from another. Each shape corresponds to no more than one clue cell. Given x-marked cells, if any, cannot be used.

About: “Interference” was invented by Anurag Sahay. 

Puzzlerium tour: Statue Park

  

Theme: Clue Symmetry

Rules: Shade in some cells such that shaded cells form all the Pentomino shapes without repetition, and with rotation and reflection allowed. Shapes cannot be edge-adjacent to one another. In the end, all unpainted cells must be connected in a single group through other unpainted cells.

Puzzlerium tour: LITS Square a.k.a Double LITS

 Rules: Shade in some cells such that each outlined area contains eight shaded cells that form two tetrominoes. No 2×2 square can be shaded completely. Tetrominoes within a region cannot touch through the edges. All shapes must be connected to form a single contiguous group of shaded cells. Identical figures, regardless of rotation or reflection, cannot share an edge.

Fifth Puzzlerium Optimization Championship has started

 The fifth edition of “Puzzlerium Optimization Championship” is underway. Anyone interested can put their skills to test in a competitive setup.

Puzzles are available for download along with an Excel workbook. Submissions for puzzles 1 to 5 are preferably expected through the excel, but accepted otherwise too. Note that there is no excel sheet for the sixth puzzle.

Credits: Thanks to Vladimir Burik for volunteering and preparing the Excel workbook.

Edit: Excel formula was miscalculating the score when the word TUBEROSE was used. You may redownload it to get the fixed version.

Erroneous calculation of Trimino sums fixed.

Puzzlerium tour: Coils and Shapes

Rules: Place the five different tetromino shapes, once each, such that they do not touch each other, not even diagonally. The shapes can be rotated and reflected. Then, draw a single loop whose path is horizontal or vertical, such that it passes through all the cells. The loop has to pass twice through (intersecting itself) five cells – one cell per tetromino – and goes straight through on every pass. The rest of the cells will be visited once. All five cells of intersection are given as shaded cells. The loop has to either pass straight through the remaining three cells of each tetromino, or turn in all the three cells. Given letters indicate which tetromino shape occupies that cell.

About: "Coils and Shapes" was invented by Anurag Sahay.

Puzzlerium tour: Go Square (Cipher/Segment lengths)

 

Theme: Windows

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

Also, clues in circles indicate the total length of the segments extending from the clue cell on either side before turning. 

About: "Go Square" was invented by Anurag Sahay in 2020.