Month: December 2016

Rhombile Transparent Tapa Loop

Here is a transparent variation of Tapa-Loop by Serkan Yürekli adapted to a Rhombile grid.  Some puzzles of this type crafted by Serkan and Fatih Kamer Anda will be featured on the upcoming Tapa Variations Contest hosted by Logic Masters India.

Rules

Shade some cells such that:

  1. For any cell with one or more numerical clues, shaded cells form connected groups of the indicated size within the group of cells sharing a vertex with the clued cell.  Cells with clues can be shaded.
  2. For every vertex touching exactly 3 cells, at least one cell must be unshaded.
  3. One must be able to draw a single loop through all shaded cells.

Example

rhombile-transparent-tapa-loop-examplerhombile-transparent-tapa-loop-example-solution

Puzzles

All of the puzzles can be found organized in this printable PDF, or in the images below.

PDF Rhombile Transparent Tapa Loop

01. Medium

 rhombile-transparent-tapa-loop-medium-01

02. Hard

rhombile-transparent-tapa-loop-hard-02

03. Easy

rhombile-transparent-tapa-loop-hard-03

Killer Sudoku Hybrids

Over these last few weeks I’ve returned to my roots with a few Killer Sudoku variants, which I recently posted to the Daily League on Facebook.  I have a few more ideas, but they’ll have to wait until after finals.

Star Battle Killer

Place the numbers 1-8 and two stars in each row, column, and jigsaw group. Stars cannot touch each other, even diagonally. Numbers cannot repeat within cages. Stars count as 0 in cages.

star-killer-1

Butterfly X Nurikabe Killer

This puzzle is made up of four overlapping 9×9 Sudoku grids arranged in a butterfly pattern (1 in each corner), each with it’s own set of main diagonals, which must contain the numbers 1-9.  The sum/size of all cages are given, but not their shapes.  The shapes of cages must form islands in a valid Nurikabe solution.  Givens are shaded, and thus cannot be part of a cage.

butterfly-x-nurikabe-killer

Killer Battleships

Classic Sudoku rules apply.  Additionally, a fleet of battleships must be placed into the grid, such that they do not touch, even diagonally.  Cells occupied by the battleships must add up to the sum associated with each ship, and any cell sharing an edge with a ship cannot contain any of the numbers inside the ship.  Numbers on the outside of the grid indicate how many cells in that row or column are occupied by a ship.  Givens are “sea” squares, and cannot contain a ship.

killer-battleship-sudoku