AkashG23's Puzzle Locker

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......

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...

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...

 PUZZLE NIGHT SIX! PUZZLE NIGHT SIX! This event was hosted on  Deckardv 's puzzle server! Once again, I participated and placed...  8th  out of 16 participants, which was in the blue zone. (you can see my post on  Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). I wanted to get in the purple zone this time. I didn't get in the purple zone, but to be fair, I found this night to be the hardest so far. This night was themed on hybrids. Puzzle 1: Word Snakes + Star Battle \ Time: 15:16 \ Placement: 8th The first puzzle was a word snakes + star battle fusion. I was in the car for the first half of the solve (so I had to do the word snakes part on my phone). Then, I quickly transcribed the regions formed by the word snakes words into Penpa for the star battle portion when I arrived home. Puzzle 2: Masyu + Yajilin \ Time: 18:03 \ Placement: 8th The second puzzle was a Masyu and Yajilin hybrid. I got very stuck at first, but after a hint was given, I ha...

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 hun...

Wait, 2025? Not 2024? Oh wait... Another puzzle night (speed solving competition) was hosted by  Deckardv  on his puzzle server! I participated and placed... 3rd  (!) out of 25 participants, which was in the podium! (you can see my post on Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). My goal this time was the "purple zone" or higher, because that's where I placed last time. And, while I didn't expect it, I placed in a higher zone! Funny thing: I placed above three puzzle winners despite not placing in the podium in any puzzle lol This night was based on Nikoli-styled puzzles. Puzzle 1: LITS \ Time: 4:42 \ Placement: 8th First, we had a LITS that was slightly above GAPP level. I had a nice start and found a few nice logic points, but eventually resorted to bifurcation around 2-3 minutes in. Puzzle 2: Yajilin \ Time: 4:53 \ Placement: 8th Next up was a Yajilin puzzle. This one claimed to be the easiest puzzle, and... it was of similar difficulty to...

Deckardv  hosted another "puzzle night" (speed setting competition) on his puzzle server! I participated and placed... 5th out of 27 participants! (the "purple zone"). My goal was the "blue zone" or higher, so I'm glad I accomplished that! If you're wondering why I'm using these "colored zones", here are my names for each zone and their associated rankings (they are numbered this way in Deckardv's server): 1st - 3rd : Podium 4th - 5th: Purple Zone 6th - 10th: Blue Zone 11th - 20th: Green Zone 21th and below: Red Zone This night was titled "See Example", and the description implied instructionless puzzles, Since I didn't make the main puzzles, I won't be posting them here. If you want to see them, they're on Deckardv's puzzle server. Puzzle 1: Instructionless Loop I - "Number Loop" \ Time: 12:24 \ Placement: 9th First, up was a loop-based instructionless puzzle similar to Touch Slitherlink. Ther...

No new puzzles?   Another "puzzle night" (i.e. a speed solving competition) happened on  Deckardv 's puzzle server. I participated and placed... 7th out of 22. Definitely better than my previous placement , and definitely higher than where I thought I would place. This time, there were some more familiar puzzle genres, as well as a theme of "Missing Information". Again, I won't show the actual puzzles here (because I didn't make them), but I'll describe and show my experiences for them. If you want to see the puzzles, they're on Deckardv's puzzle server. Puzzle 1: Star Battle \ Time: 9:46 \ Placement: 8th First, there was a 10x10 star battle with 2 stars. However, five of the regions were combined into one "mega-region" containing 10 stars. It had some interesting logic with the mega-region. Puzzle 2: Word Snakes \ Time: 18:09 \ Placement: 8th Next up, a Word Snakes! However, there were some missing letters that formed two eight-let...

 I participated in a "puzzle night" (i.e. a speed solving competition) on Deckardv 's puzzle server! I didn't do that well, but here are some of my experiences. I placed 25th overall out of around 35 competitors, which was a bit disappointing for me, but not too bad for my first puzzle night. I felt like I had some fun solving the puzzles. There were only 5, consisting of both familiar and unfamiliar genres. I won't show the actual puzzles here, but I'll show my thought processes and experiences for them. Puzzle 1: Word Snakes \ Time: DNF \ Placement: 32nd Word Snakes is a genre where you have to find words on a grid, similar to a word search. However, the words are all paths instead of just horiz./vert./diag. lines. I got thrown off by a word that wouldn't fit any other words but eventually found the correct solution. Unfortunately, I was a few seconds too late to have my completion time counted. Puzzle 2: Gerrymandering \ Time: DNF \ Placement: 32nd Gerr...

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 with i...

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...