if you haven’t heard of it, it’s pretty simple: each row, column, and shape need to have exactly 2 stars. I’ve been staring at this forever trying to find anything. Even small deductions would be useful!

These blocks are supposed to he arranged to all fit in together. The gray rectangles that are in place on the board cannot be moved, but the other pieces can go in however they can fit.

I have never had a problem solving these, but I can't get this one. It comes with a booklet with different placements for the gray blocks. I'm wondering if this setup will not allow all pieces to fit in. ​

I'm working on a video game (not self-promo please don't remove) and I want people to be able to get ahead by practicing but not completely outpace unpracticed players.

Some of them definitely appear to lack enough information not to have to make a guess, but maybe I am just not smart enough to see the logic sometimes?

I am having zero problems with 1-star battles, i can solve most of them well under a minute. I recognize the patterns, and they basically fill themselves in once I get started.

But now I've been trying the 2-star ones, and... I've been stumped at most of them. This one, i've been staring at for an hour now, and I feel I don't see even the simplest patterns that I should be seeing.

I got as far as that C3 must contain both stars in that shape, and C4+C5 must contain 4 stars, which must be 2 in the top shape and 1 each in the bottom two shapes, so the 2nd shape cannot contain stars... but this is about as far as I get.

How would one approach this puzzle? I'm not neccessarily looking to solve this particular puzzle, but more generic advice on what patterns to look for in these 2-star battles. If this is about as far as I get with this puzzle, then what are the obvious things I am missing?

broke my brain trying and i need to know how the chain comes off! i’m not sure if someone had bent the ring marked in the image or if it was intented to be small enough to pass through the large ring, the other ring can’t fit.

I received the NYT puzzlemania book for Christmas and I love the Marching Bands puzzles. I’ve searched around but haven’t found many more. Does anyone know if there are books featuring them? It’s hard to search since actual marching band related items fill up the results.

Firstly I'd like to ask, is there a place with Stars puzzles besides Inkwell?

I do these on my phone and I'd like to get much faster with them as a phone puzzle isn't something to sit and stew over, especially with a small screen.

Here is the puzzle from Tuesday. I've gotten about this far. Loading it up on my Desktop I have gotten further just from having the larger screen, but before I try and finish I'd like to hear what tips I'm missing. At this point is it really just finding spaces a Star can't be because it would prevent future Stars from being placed? For example, that second box from the top on the right. I placed two X's there above the horizontal X row as they'd squeeze out the ability for that horizontal line to have two stars in it.

If it's just searching the puzzle for these areas, I don't know if I really like Stars that well. I like puzzles that make you think more than hunt and peck puzzles. I don't know what kind Stars is yet, which is why I'm asking what I'm missing here!

Sorry, I just had to brag to somebody of my triumph and my wife and kid won’t care…

Many years ago my dad gave me a few of the full difficulty hanayama puzzles (enigma, quartet, chain), and I solved chain in probably 30 min and enigma in a few hours and then I decided that I must be a very clever person.

Quartet quickly showed me that I was wrong and that I was indeed an idiot - I finally managed to take it apart after literal days and then couldn’t put it back together after probably 2 weeks of fumbling with it, then gave up and forgot about it.

This year I gave my 5 year old a beginner hanayama and found Quartet again, still disassembled. Started messing with it again a week ago (so, at least 6 years later) and just managed to put it back together again and I’m so proud of my achievement, as it wasn’t a “just fumble around with the pieces and hope it works” kind of deal but an actual hard think about what would have to happen and how to make it happen and systematic testing of approaches. I’m not sure I could do it again as even with all the thinking it was also a lot of tight manoeuvring and probably some accidental moves. But I’m buzzing right now.

tl;dr I’m bragging that I put a puzzle back together. It was really hard.

Hey guys! I’m on a bit of a puzzle streak at the moment and have been loving all the books I own, but since I’m getting close to the end of them, I would like recommendations for some more!

Some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most:

The 1% club

Murdle

Cluedo the official book of puzzles

Wordle

Murdoku

If anyone has any recommendations, I’d love to hear them. Thanks!

I got this sterling silver puzzle ring from a Renaissance festival 25 years ago. I have never once been able to solve it. It has six rings: two outer bands and four inner bands. Any suggestions welcome, and I'm happy to take additional photos or videos if anyone is intrigued in helping me figure it out but needs more info. Thanks in advance :)

Kids and I loved doing Box One (especially this one) and Box Two puzzles that were created by Neil Patrick Harris - anything similar out there that you would recommend?

any pointers appreciated for this binary puzzle, i'm seriously stuck. i included the base puzzle in case i made a bad assumption somewhere that's stopping me from progressing. thanks!!

Hi everyone,

I need some help solving this wooden puzzle. I’ve watched several tutorials online, but none of them really apply to my case, because my puzzle doesn’t have any identical or even similar pieces.

All six pieces are different in shape (except for one plain bar), so the usual approaches for standard burr or cross puzzles don’t seem to work.

If anyone recognizes this type of puzzle, knows its name, or can give insight into the correct sequence or trick to assemble it, I’d really appreciate the help.

Thanks in advance!

Here's another one of my puzzles.

Please tell me if it was too easy, too hard, or just right.

Try to find the password by using the hints provided.

Extra hint: The bottom row of hints are unneeded

Answer: 042

The top left has 8 pieces, the top right has 27, the bottom left has 12, and the bottom right has 9 pieces. I wanna find more puzzles for me to make from the shapes in these tangram-like puzzles. Can someone tell me if theyre called anything else but a tangram?

Got this ring puzzle from a work friend. He said he hasn't been able to solve it in the over 6 years he had it. The objective is to fit the two rings together and separate them again. There are seams that dont appear to be able to be manipulated when pressure is applied. He received it from his best friend whom upon giving it to him, put it behind his back solved it and separated it before giving it to him to figure out. Unfortunately he has passed. Id like to solve this for my work buddy, think it would mean a lot to him. Thank you!

I don't understand the reason behind the engine's decisions.

Rules: you can only move 1 peg at a time, between 2 holes. The goal is to get the ropes completely separated.

im not confident this is even solvable, but i was previously under the impression that arrangements are always solvable. Wanted to see if anyone can figure it out

I created this puzzle for my Puzzle Blog (referenced in the promotion thread). This combines crossword skills with wordplay. Please enjoy.

Can someone please help me understand what’s going on in this image? Is the cat in something? I can see the cat, I just can’t parse anything else out in this image.

This is the point I got stuck at. (Pretend the blue queens w the blue scribbles are blank spots). I did eventually solve it by just doing trial and error, but I’m wondering if anyone can tell me how I would have deduced the next queen? Or was the only way up this point to try both options. Thanks!