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Double Back

Today’s puzzle is a Double Back. The size of almost all regions is a multiple of three, and the one exception to the rule looks like the number three. The colouring is for aesthetical purposes.

Double Back 1

Rules:

  • Draw a single, non-intersecting loop that visits every cell exactly once, and every region exactly twice.

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Double Back

Here’s an easy/medium LITS. Getting the puzzle to wrap up was the hardest part.

LITS 1

Rules:

  • Shade some cells to form a tetromino in each region.
  • Two tetrominoes of the same shape may not share an edge.
  • The shaded cells must also form a connected wall that contains no 2×2 squares of shaded cells.

EDIT: I modified two of the central regions, the puzzle solves more smoothly now.

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Double Back

Today’s puzzle might be somewhat vulnerable to metalogic due to the sparse clues, but I think the actual logic involved is pretty interesting.

Alternating Masyu 1

Rules:

  • Draw a single non-self-intersecting loop that runs through the centers of the cells and visits all pearls.
  • On black pearls the loop must make a right turn, and the loop must go straight through the cells before and after the pearl.
  • On white pearls the loop goes straight through, and the loop must make a right turn on at least one of the cells before and after the pearl.
  • Or, see Masyu rules.
  • Additionally, the loop must alternate between visiting black and white pearls: it can’t visit two pearls of the same colour in a row.

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Double Back

Today’s puzzle is both a LITS and a two-star Star Battle. Of the two, the LITS is definitely easier.

Star Battle~LITS 1

LITS rules:

  • Shade some cells to form a tetromino in each region.
  • Two tetrominoes of the same shape may not share an edge.
  • The shaded cells must also form a connected wall that contains no 2×2 squares of shaded cells.

Star Battle rules:

  • Place two stars in every row, column and region.
  • The stars may not touch each other, even by corners.

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Double Back

Standard vanilla two-star Star Battle. The shading is for aesthetical purposes. I’ve actually forgotten why I even themed it around the 1.

Star Battle 1 v2

Rules:

  • Place two stars on every row, column and region.
  • The stars may not touch each other, even by corners.

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Double Back

Here’s some more Clouds puzzles. The smaller is an easier starter, while the larger is the main course. I’d say it’s hard, but probably not as hard as the first Clouds I posted (I solved that one again recently, and I definitely didn’t remember it being that hard.)

Clouds 2

Clouds 3

  • Shade some cells to form rectangular clouds. The clouds don’t touch each other, even by corners.
  • The clues tell the amount of shaded cells in that row/column.
  • A cloud must be at least two cells tall and wide: 1×n or n×1 clouds aren’t allowed.

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Double Back

Just to mix things up a bit, here’s a 7×7-sized number placement puzzle.

Renban Groups 1

Rules:

  • Fill the grid with numbers from 1 to 7 such that no number repeats within a row or column.
  • Additionally, each region must contain a set of consecutive digits.

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Double Back

Guess what? Here’s another 6×6-sized puzzle, a Magic Order Sudoku.

Magic Order Sudoku 1.2

Rules:

  • Fill the grid with digits from 1 to 6 such that no number repeats within a row, column or region.
  • Reading the rows and columns of  the filled grid right, left, down, and up, 24 six-digit numbers are formed. Order the numbers by size, biggest first: reading the row’s/column’s number from the direction of the clue, the clue gives the number’s position in the list. (1 marks the biggest number, and 24 the smallest.)

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Double Back

Keeping up with the theme of 6×6-sized puzzles of the number placement variety, here’s an Inequality Sudoku.

Greater Than Sudoku 1

Rules:

  • Fill the grid with numbers from 1 to 6 such that no number repeats within a row, column or region.
  • Additionally, the inequality signs between cells must be satisfied by the numbers in those cells.

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Double Back

It’s my birthday! Here’s two Sum Skyscrapers: one in European day/month/year format, and the other in American year/month/day format. They’re not wildly different, I just couldn’t decide which one to use.

Sum Skyscrapers 1

Sum Skyscrapers 2

Rules:

  • Standard Skyscrapers rules.
  • However, the clues give the sum – not the amount – of visible numbers.