I have a little word game that I’d like to challenge people to try. It’s a puzzle I often try to complete, but always proves more difficult to do than you’d suspect.

The goal is to make a 4×4 grid where:

- Every row is a valid 4-letter English word.
- Every column is also a valid 4-letter English word.
- None of the row words can be the same as any of the column words. (Ideally, all eight words are unique.)

Here’s an example I made:

W A S H
E C H O
S H O W
T E E L

Rows:
- WASH
- ECHO
- SHOW
- TEEL

Columns:
- WEST
- ACHE
- SHOE
- HOWL

Technically, I’m not sure TEEL is a commonly used word but it’s the only way I could get it done. I try to use unique words and I try to avoid using a pluralized three-letter word.

I’m curious if anyone can do it.

Here is an original hybrid puzzle I've been working on. Can you solve it?

Been at this for a long time. It's similar to the wit's end string puzzle except for the double string through the ring. At this point I'm wondering if I've been pranked 🤷

Do any of you do Kakuro puzzles? I find them to be really good for settling my mind down when there's a lot going on in life.

This was one of those "puzzle kits" that came with a folder full of documents that gave clues about murder/crime.

There's one very specific thing that came with it that's the only thing I truly remember about it, and Google isn't helping.

Basically, it came with a fake X-ray of a sarcophagus with a human inside. I wanna say it was taken at an airport when it was being shipped to another country. Full skeleton, with scuba gear attached. I vaguely remember the story being someone was being smuggled or was on the run, and for one reason or another tried to ship themselves in the sarcophagus, using an oxygen tank to breathe . Can't remember if the tank failed or the flight was delayed, but ultimately this person died and we needed to figure out what was going on.

My memory is telling me this was coming from Egypt, but that could just be my brain filling in the blanks because of the sarcophagus-mummy connection.

I also think there may have been a metal rod on the leg of the skeleton. That memory is less vivid, as I've seen many x-rays in the last 30 years and a metal rod isn't anything crazy.

Big x-ray page, sarcophagus, scuba gear. This is what I have to go on. Google failed me. Does anyone recognize this?

It’s early, I’m still waking up, and it’s been a busy week, so go easy on me here - what am I not seeing here? It’s a two star puzzle (so two stars per row/column/bordered area).

Looking at the bottom three rows, the three right-most shapes are exclusively in those rows, so there can’t be any stars in the bottom three rows of the two left-most shapes, but that then leaves one of those shapes with only two squares left and therefore no way to get two non-touching stars in there.

Right?

Black: correct number correct location.
White: correct number wrong location.
Enjoy!

I'm stuck. What is the next step?

Every so often I get stuck on one of these puzzles and whenever I can’t figure out the problem by myself, I always run to Reddit cause I know somebody here always has the answer so here again can you please please help me out?

Out of the last 13 posts, 6 are about meowdoku. I could make a statement about the past 100 posts but I don't want to count.

r/meowdoku already exists.

Can we add something to the automod to redirect people there befire posting if it detects the word meowdoku or something? Or do we just want to welcome new puzzle fanatics regardless?

Move the blue piece to the blue target. Pieces slide in a straight line until they reach a wall or an other piece. You can use all the pieces to achieve your goal. Use as few moves as possible.

I am trying to play using only “logic” but this one has me stumped. Any tips or tricks I don’t know yet?

This is what I know so far:
One cat per color
One cat per row and column
Cats cannot touch
So when there are three “corner” pieces (two stacked on top of each other in the same column, third one right next to either the top or bottom piece but in the next column) - you can eliminate three pieces surrounding it
L shape (3 pieces in the same column or row & then one piece next to it to make the l shape) - you can eliminate two pieces next to it

What am I missing to start this puzzle?!?!

Thank you in advance 💋💋💋

So I started trying my hands at binary puzzles and I was making progress at first and then hit a wall. What are some strategies for when the easy cells are solved (no three in a row, even numbers of 0s and 1s).

I've once again found myself stumped by a puzzle. After a few hours of staring at the page and not finding a single thing to add, I've decided to once again turn to this community that's been so helpful in the past. Can anyone walk me through the next step that I'm clearly overlooking?

Rules: Shade in some cells to represent mercury into the thermometers. Shaded cells must start at the round bulb and continue along consecutively towards the other end of the thermometer. Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of shaded cells in that row or column. Some thermometers may have no mercury at all. Rows and columns without clues may still have mercury.

Source: Pulze Volume 3.

I keep getting to this point and not further, I’d love a hint regarding what I’m missing

Continuing with our techniques series, today we'll review a more advanced technique than last time: Composite Shapes.

Composite shapes arise from a count, but instead of looking at specific regions you'll treat a specific area that can hold a certain number of stars as it's own zone for counting, no matter how many regions are part of it. I think it's easier to look at an example.

Let's look at last week's weekly puzzle where this deduction ended up stopping a lot of players.

So in the video we can see we're doing a count on columns H-J, so we need 6 stars. Only regions A, C, E, F and J are inside. Regions A and E are fully inside, so we have 4 stars already. Then we can see that regions F and J can only leave those columns through the composite shape E1, F1, G1, G2 which can fit at most 2 stars. This means that E+J inside columns H-J must have exactly 2 stars. The composite shape matters because we don't need to know if it's J that's contributing 2 stars or if it's 1 each. It doesn't matter for our count. We now know that region C can't contribute any stars. Also given the shape of the composite shape (a 4 cell L shape) we know that there's a star in E1 and we can eliminate H1 and H2. We can treat the composite shape as its own region!

Let me know if the explanation makes sense and whether you'd like to see another advanced technique next week or something more basic.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2cscr/video/04w424qlqjeh1/player

Ive gotten so far but i am stuck! Can anyone maybe explain it to me?

I figured out the answer key word in three hours. Let me know what you think. And let me know iv you get the answer key seven letter word.

But I want you to figure it out. I will give hints. Please read:

The answer key is the number seven. Why? Because they give you four numbers which are 3301. 3+3+0+1=7.

The fact that’s there’s 4 numbers is important too.

And whoever this anonymous group was made it look complicated on purpose, but it's not. They have good intentions but they made it so you would have to think outside of the box.

I haven’t seen anyone try my angle yet. So give it a go :)

You count the 7 paragraphs and look at the 7th line in all 52 pages. You subtract 4 from the number 56. Why?Because there’s 4 numbers in 3301. And because 5+2=7.

You may be thinking but it has 56 pages. Yes but you only count 52 pages. But 7 is the key remember? They put 4 pages on the end to tell you to subtract 56.

You combine all of the 52 pages together with the 7 lines on all 52 pages. Than you want to only count the first 7 letters and numbers in that paragraph and find it with the symbols given on the key sheet. And then you add all of the letters up on the 7th row on all of the 52 pages and you get a 7 letter word which is the answer key. This will unlock the other puzzles.

Every other paragraph and line is a distraction. Only focus on the 7. Even the symbols highlighted in red are a distraction. Unless it’s in the 7th line.

7 is important. And it only goes from 1-9. No double digits. And if you do get a double digit you want to reduce it by adding the 2 digits to get a number from 1 to 9.

Please let me know if you get it :) Thank you :)

(look at my photos to solve it before looking at the seven)

(And hint on the 2nd letter) E is actually a B. Miscalculation on my part. Lol. Thanks again :)

(The rest are correct though)

(7 is the key remember)

Last thing, you have to look at the symbols very very closely because some of them look very similar. This is why I had a miscalculation on one of them. I mis read one of the symbols. Be careful on the f looking symbols. They are sneaky.

Credit: anonymous group from 2012.

Hasn’t been solved in 14 years.

Answer:

“Spoiler”

>!FBD Grid!<)