Deckardv 2025 Puzzle Night 5 Recap + Experience

Puzzle Night 5 was hosted on Deckardv's puzzle server! Once again, I participated and placed... 5th out of 28 participants, which was in the purple zone. (you can see my post on Puzzle Night 3 to see the zone colors and placements). My goal this time was the podium. because that's where I placed last time. My placement went down from last time, but it's okay.

This night had more varied puzzles due to a new mod team in the server.

Puzzle 1: Crossword \ Time: 8:52 \ Placement: 12th

The first puzzle was a crossword. I was a bit concerned since I've never actually solved a crossword puzzle before, but the puzzle wasn't that bad. I got a bit stuck at the end, but still solved the puzzle quite fast.

Puzzle 2: Nurikabe \ Time: 1:35 \ Placement: 6th

The second puzzle was a GAPP-level Nurikabe. I didn't expect to solve the puzzle this quickly, but I took it anyways.

Puzzle 3: Puzzle Hunt \ Time: 13:45 \ Placement: 6th

No, this wasn't an entire puzzle hunt. It was a puzzle similar to one you might see in a puzzle hunt.

Now about the puzzle -- it was themed around a puzzle camp hosted by Deckardv called SOPO (Summer of Puzzle Olympics), involving team names and puzzle names. I used a spreadsheet as an aid for the puzzle, and it probably helped.

Puzzle 4: Kakuro \ Time: 6:03 \ Placement: 5th

This puzzle was a variant kakuro that only used numbers from 1-7. It was a bit difficult, but after I realized I had to use both "naked" and "hidden" logic, it became easier.

Puzzle 5: Word Snakes \ Time: 16:37 \ Placement: 8th

The last puzzle of the night was a variant Word Snakes that claimed to be the hardest. This one was pretty funny --- but also quite difficult.

Practice Puzzles

I did not make a practice set this time.

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Look-Air Exploration

In this post, we'll take a deep dive into the rules of Look-Air, a puzzle genre by Nikoli . Examples and visuals will be included. Part I: Setting the Scene To start, here are the rules, according to this dictionary : "Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square. Clues represent how many of the five cells forming a cross around the clue (including itself) are shaded. Two shaded squares of the same size may not have a vertical or horizontal line of unshaded cells between them, unobstructed." Let's break down each of these rules step by step: 1. "Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square." On the grid, each cell can take one of two states --- shaded or unshaded. If you know that a cell is unshaded, interfaces tend to use green, and if you know that a cell is shaded, interfaces tend to use black or dark gray. White is also used to show cells...

14. Winds of Aeolus

10x1,200 Look-Air. Enjoy! Creator's time: 121:20 (2:01:20) Rules: Standard Look-Air Rules \ Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square. Clues represent how many of the five cells forming a cross around the clue (including itself) are shaded. Two shaded squares of the same size may not have a vertical or horizontal line of unshaded cells between them, unobstructed. Difficulty: 11/14 Tall version (puzz.link) \ Long version (puzz.link)

My Difficulty Scale

I measure difficulty using a scale different from the CTC server. The two scales are comparable. This scale is inspired by the osu! difficulty scale and the MODS server's scale. My scale goes from 0 to 14 on normal puzzles, with higher difficulties representing harder puzzles. Yes, the scale goes above 14, but this blog rarely has a d15 or higher puzzle. Attached for each difficulty is an approximate real-life comparison in mathematics. d0 \ The easiest a puzzle can get. This difficulty is generally reserved for some joke puzzles or really easy example puzzles. These puzzles practically require no effort whatsoever. \ Real-Life Comparison: Addition and subtraction with integers d1 \ Most example puzzles fall in this difficulty. Puzzles here are almost never made as a joke, but are harder than d0 puzzles. This difficulty includes puzzles that many people, puzzle solvers or not, will find pretty easy. \ Real-Life Comparison: Multiplication and division ...

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