AkashG23's Puzzle Locker

Nothing new from uni that I'd say is really interesting  Anyways, have a classic Look-Air. Creator's time: 1:38.0 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 : 7.0/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

This event on Deckardv 's puzzle server is similar to a puzzle night—except it's much longer, and there's only 1 puzzle per day. A total of 260 participants signed up, and due to this, most of the zones I mentioned in my post on Puzzle Night 3  are quite different. This event's zones are as follows: 1st - 3rd : Podium 4th - 10th: Purple Zone 11th - 30th: Blue Zone 31st - 75th: Green Zone 76th - 150th: Orange Zone 151st and below: Red Zone I participated and placed... well, you'll see at the very end of this post. My goal was to place in the "blue" zone or higher. Puzzle 1: Star Battle \ Time: 5:24 \ Placement: 28th The first puzzle was a moderate star battle (slightly harder than GAPP-level) with two stars per row, column, and region. Just like the last puzzle event, my puzz.link UI was in Japanese, but I still knew where most of the buttons were. After looking at this puzzle's results, I thought I would place in the blue zone most of the time, but......

help I'm having instances of girls I don't directly know randomly talking to me at uni Anyways, this genre WAS one that I thought I had invented, but if you change all the clues to 5-n, where n is the value of the clue, you basically have a Look-Air (Loop) puzzle. rip me ig But I'll still attach the example puzzle ( link ) for this genre. The solution to the example can be found here , Creator's time: 3:36.0 Rules:  Standard Look-Air-Like Loop Rules \ Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some cells. Numbers represent how many of the five cells forming a cross around the clue (including itself) contain part of the loop. Each orthogonally connected area of cells not used by the loop must be in the shape of a square. Two unused squares of the same size may not have a vertical or horizontal line of used cells between them, unobstructed. Answer check only looks for the loop. Difficulty : 6.0/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

So on 8/26/2026, I was trying to verify this puzzle before the lecture for one of my classes started. And then the professor came with a skateboard and helmet and immediately loaded up the NYT Connections for us to help solve. But I did it earlier that day and STILL decided to give hints. And when he divides the class into small groups, he has all the group names be synonymous with "Group 1" instead of something like "Group 1," "Group 2," etc. to make everyone feel like a winner!  Anyways, back to the puzzle. I wanted a 10-cell renban heart centered in the puzzle. But I can't add a 10-cell renban line because with the digits from 1-9, we're only able to add a renban lines with 9 cells. So what did I do? I added a 10th digit. And with this deficit sudoku setup, we're just throwing certain sudoku logic out the window. And yes I know a "vel" (object) means something else but in reality this puzzle is dedicated to uhhh... Vel. The one on ...

Just felt like adding this because why not. Labels under the Genres ,  Difficulties , and All Labels  categories should be self-explanatory. Puzzle Types: Connection - Involves drawing lines to form a network.  Example puzzle: Serene Bridges (17) . Instructionless  - Involves deducing the rules of a puzzle, often with an example.  Example puzzle: The practice puzzles I made for Deckardv's 3rd puzzle night . Loop  - Involves drawing lines to form a loop that may cross.  Example puzzle: Truly Simple? (28) . Numbers  - Involves filling a grid with numbers.  Example puzzle: Synergia (41) . Object Placement  - Involves placing more abstract objects on a grid.  Example puzzle: Light Up (39) . Puzzle Hunt  - A more open-ended puzzle genre; solvers often have to find the rules themselves.  Example puzzle: MIT Mystery Hunt (will add a blog puzzle here when I add one of this type). Region Division  - Involves dividing a grid in...

 So the title of this puzzle kind of looks like a cryptic clue even though I'm not trying to make it a cryptic clue (literally just look at the puzzle) This puzzle has two of the constraints from the "green" puzzle I mentioned in  Synergia (41)  (which got rated on LMD as I'm writing this lol). And this puzzle has a smile! And the thumbnail has a cat that'll probably make you happy!!! Also nothing new from uni other than trying to learn asymptote code to add graphs to my notes Creator's time: 7:43 Rules:  Normal 9×9 sudoku rules apply. Variant 1: German Whispers \ Adjacent digits along a green German Whispers line must differ by at least 5. Variant 2: Killer Cages \ Digits in a killer cage do not repeat and sum to the value in the top-left corner. Difficulty : 6.0/14 Online interface (SudokuPad)

If I had made this a few days ago this would've been a practice puzzle for a certain puzzle night-like event that I am going to post about later because as I'm writing this that event isn't over yet And also uni classes have started for me! But there's a bit of a lore moment I wanted to share --- I started taking AP Calc AB/BC about 3 years ago (HS sophomore). And I felt good about myself with this path until this random kid in my applied linear algebra (can't really say too much without leaking what uni I'm going to) started talking about how last year (?) a high school junior allegedly took this class I'm taking this semester. ok akash this is a puzzle blog not a college blog stop talking about uni stuff you're boring the people who actually want to see puzzles Creator's time: 0:17.7 Rules:  Missing Middles (2) Rules \ Find the two letters that replace the blanks for each set of letters. See the bottom of the puzzle for an example and how answer ch...

So a while ago, I made three personalized puzzles for a few of my IRL friends (one each). One was for someone I knew for more than 12 years and had a few basic constraints. The second was for someone I was friends with for roughly 2 years as I'm writing this, and had a green theme because their profile picture was green. But the third was my favorite of the three, even though I had known this puzzle's recipient for shorter than the other two friends. This third puzzle included a few basic constraints, as well as a unique one that I might have invented --- tennis balls (added because this person plays tennis). But as much as I want to post those puzzles here, I can't post any of them (not even the ones I like) because they spelled out the recipients' names with lines (like german whispers, renban, etc). So here's another puzzle with the tennis balls constraint (and also dedicated to the recipient of the 3rd puzzle I mentioned above) because... why not?  Also I like t...

Well now you know how a Word Snakes puzzle looks. Anyways, this puzzle isn't part of the "Hunt 4" project, but rather a different one called "Hunt 3." Here is an example puzzle that used 6-letter words. The solution to the example puzzle is here . Creator's time:  1:22.3 Rules:  Word Snakes (9) Rules \ Each darkened letter is the start of a word that in this puzzle is 9 letters long. The words snake outward from that starting letter, connecting only orthogonally. Once a letter is used, it may not be used again in another word. Diagonal connections are not allowed. In this puzzle, the unused letters spell out a 9-letter word in reading order. Difficulty : 5.5/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

 "Akari" is actually pretty close to "Akash" because you only have to change the last two letters by one index each. Creator's time: 2:06 Rules: Standard Akari Rules \ Place lights into some empty cells so that every cell is illuminated. Lights illuminate the cell they’re in as well as all cells seen in a straight line horizontally or vertically, not obstructed by a black cell. Lights may not illuminate each other. Clues represent the number of lights in the (up to) four cells surrounding the clue. Difficulty : 7.0/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

It's pretty hard to deduce the theme of the "Hunt 4" project I mentioned in the last post from just looking at puzzles 37, 38, and 39 (which will be the last of the "Hunt 4" puzzles for now). Creator's time: 3:57.0 Rules:  Standard Crystal Mine Rules \ Draw a non-intersecting path through the centers of some cells connecting the two arrows. The path must pass through every crystal (diamond), but must not pass through all four cells in any 2x2 area of the grid. Difficulty : 7.5/14 Online interface (Penpa+) crystalline.html

 Hello from uni Anyways, the next few puzzles are from a project that some of my IRL friends and I refer to as "Hunt 4." Creator's time: 2:01 Rules:  Normal 6×6 Sudoku rules DON'T apply.  Variant 1: Mean Mini \ Fill the grid with 6 of the digits from 1-9 such that each digit appears exactly six times, and no digit repeats within a row, column, or 2x3 box. Variant 2: Fog \ Some cells are hidden by "fog," meaning you cannot see their contents. Some fog may be removed when a digit is correctly filled. Digits can be logically deduced; no guessing is needed. Variant 3: Killer Cages \ The digits in a cage sum to the value in the top left. Digits cannot repeat in a cage. Difficulty :  7.0/14 Online interface (SudokuPad)

Maybe not taking the L with this puzzle. Creator's time: 18:26 Rules: Normal 9x9 Sudoku rules apply.  Variant: Thermos \ Digits must strictly increase along the thermometer starting from the bulb end. LMD link: https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=000UG2 Difficulty : 8.0/14 Online interface (SudokuPad)

This genre has a nice name. Creator's time: 1:38.0 Rules: Standard Landvermessung Rules \ Shade some cells such that no closed loops exist among the shaded cells (not even a 2x2). A clue indicates the number of cells in the shortest path of shaded cells that visits all of those touched by the clue. An infinity (∞) clue indicates that no such path exists. Difficulty : 5.5/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

   This puzzle was inspired by the Geometry Dash level LIMEADE by AudieoVisual. And yes, the difficulty can do that. But I'll just round down for tag purposes. Creator's time: 13:58 Rules:  Normal 9x9 Sudoku rules apply.  Variant: Lemons \ Digits around the edge of a lime or lemon must sum to the total given in the two-digit number in the center of the lime or lemon (read left-to-right or top-to-bottom); digits may repeat on the same shape if allowed by other rules. LMD link:  https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=000UF9 Difficulty : 8.5/14 Online interface (SudokuPad)

  You might remember  Mysterious Pink Lines (15) , which was a variant KenKen with Renban lines. This KenKen actually has fewer  lines than a standard KenKen --- if you think cage borders are lines. And this puzzle was d4 for the LONGEST time (since like mid-late 2024) until I decided to bump it up to d5 in mid August of 2026. Creator's time: 1:45.9 Rules:  Standard KenKen/TomTom Rules \ Place a number from 1 to N in each cell, where N represents the side length of the grid. You can’t repeat any numbers in the same row/column. The heavy lines indicate cages that contain groups of numbers that can be combined (in any order) to produce the target number shown in the cage, with the indicated operation. Variant: Builder \ Draw borders to form "cages" on the grid such that each clue is on the leftmost cell of the uppermost row of each cage. All cages have exactly one clue. Cages containing a clue without an operator (ex. 2) must span exactly 1 cell, and cages containing a...

 This square jam is a quick one. I recall setting this sometime around the time I was setting Card VII of  The 22 Major Look-Airna (25) . Creator's time: 0:30 Rules: Standard Square Jam Rules \  Divide the grid into square regions of orthogonally connected cells. A number indicates the side length of the square it’s in. Region borders may not form any four-way intersections. Difficulty : 2/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

Here's another oldie. Creator's time: 1:59 Rules: Standard Araf Rules \ Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells. Each region must contain exactly two circles and have an area that lies between the two numbers in the circles, exclusive. Difficulty : 4/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

Catching up with some old puzzles... This puzzle uses a few variants from  The 22 Major Look-Airna (25) , with some of them using old names. Creator's time: 2:41.8 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. Variant 1: Minesweeper \ Clues inside the grid containing just one number represent how many of the nine cells in the 3x3 area centered at the clue (including itself) are shaded. (Referred to as "3x3" within the puzzle, b/c this was made before T22MLA was finished lol) Variant 2: Easy As \ Clues outside the grid containing just one number represent the side length of the first shaded square seen in the corresponding row or column from the direction o...

    Been over a year since I posted an actual puzzle here lol This puzzle was actually made in October 2024, if I remember correctly. And for my IRL friends... you might know the context behind this puzzle. Creator's time: 1:38.2 Rules:  Standard Yajilin Rules \ Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all the remaining empty cells. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells in a straight line in the indicated direction. Difficulty : 4/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

If I had to be honest, the absence of these might've been one of the reasons on why I haven't been posting on here. For a recap, these puzzle nights are hosted on  Deckardv 's puzzle server. I participated and placed...  10th  out of 27 participants, which was in the "blue" zone. (you can see my post on  Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). My goal was the "purple" zone, and I didn't achieve that goal... again, partially because of the lack of puzzle nights. This night had a few more common puzzle genres seen in these puzzle nights. Puzzle 1: Star Battle \ Time: 6:28 \ Placement: 11th The first puzzle was a moderate star battle (slightly harder than GAPP-level). A funny thing... my puzz.link UI was stuck in Japanese, but I still knew where most of the buttons were. I used quite a bit of bifurcation, though. Puzzle 2: Nurikabe \ Time: 1:51 \ Placement: 5th I only got this time because I used uniqueness in my solving process. 💀 That...