Masyu puzzles are here!
I occasionally get requests to add new puzzle varieties to the collection. I have to ignore a lot of these, because there are 24 hours in a day. However, the last request I received, for Masyu puzzles, was hard to ignore, since I’ve enjoyed solving these myself for the past few years, and I’d love to have access to a larger collection of them. So what the heck! I made a bunch.
Masyu puzzles are closely related to Slitherlink and other spatial reasoning puzzles. Like Slitherlink, the end result is a loop which is constructed from straight line segments.
Unlike Slitherlink, Masyu puzzles don’t use numbered clues. Instead, the clues are black and white circles, which I am told resemble pearls (although I think they resemble the stones in the board game Go). This gives the puzzles an elegant simplicity which is perhaps only rivaled by Galaxy puzzles, another great Nikoli-style puzzle.
Masyu puzzles use the following rules:
- Black circles indicate corners.
- White circles indicate straights.
- Black circles must be turned upon, but the loop must travel straight through the next and previous cells in its path.
- White circles must be traveled straight through, but the loop must turn in the previous and/or next cell in its path.
If you’d like to learn more about how to solve the puzzles, I’ve written a (hopefully) helpful tutorial, which you’ll find here. If you find the tutorial less-than-helpful, let me know, so I can work to improve it.
If you’re ready to try your hand at these puzzles, check ’em out!.