HubbardGamesPuzzle guides
Clear examples, useful techniques and practical guides for the daily puzzle league.
Blooms · Solving guide
When two colour regions can only use the same two rows, those rows belong to them and every other square in them is out. How to spot it, and a checked seven by seven board it solves from the third bloom onwards.
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What each part of an Around the league card in Challenges means: the settled day wins, the Today line, the Waiting labels, and why one player can look miles ahead at lunchtime without being ahead at all.
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Lineloop · Solving guide
A Lineloop clue in a corner of the grid settles lines that the same number elsewhere cannot. What a 1, a 2 and a 3 in a corner force, and a checked 5×5 board where counting alone stops after ten edges and the corners finish it.
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Islands · Solving guide
Any empty square beside two different numbered islands must be water, or those islands would merge. How to spot the three shapes it comes in, and how it solves a checked 6×6 board using nothing else but finished islands and one way out.
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What happens between pressing Create account and seeing yourself on the Board: the two ways to sign up, the one-screen setup, what Today shows you, why your first go at a game opens the rules, and one first evening worked through to a league average.
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More or Less · Solving guide
Two signs pointing away from one square look like the same clue whichever way they sit. They are not. How a peak in a row or column differs from a corner, and how the difference solves a checked 4×4 board from two given numbers.
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Mini Sudoku · Solving guide
A square with three possible numbers can still be the only place a number fits in its box. How to pick one number, sweep it across all six 2×3 boxes, and place three 4s on a checked 6×6 board without writing a single candidate.
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Shade Out · Solving guide
Two equal numbers side by side in Shade Out can never both be shaded, so one of them always stays, and every other copy of that number in the line has to go. Here is why, the mistake it tempts, and a five by five board where it gives the first shaded cell.
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Light Up · Solving guide
A Light Up wall clued 3 with four open sides tells you where bulbs cannot go before it tells you where they do: none of its four diagonal squares can ever hold one. Here is why, the edge and corner versions, and a full seven by seven board that stalls without it.
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A Just for fun daily pays no league points, but it still ranks everyone who finished it that day, and your Profile keeps a running standing for each fun game once you have three finishes. Where each appears, how a place is decided, and one Aquarium standing worked through.
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Cross Sums · Solving guide
A few Cross Sums clues allow exactly one set of digits: 16 in two squares is always 7 and 9, and 24 in three is always 7, 8 and 9. Here are those totals for runs of two to five squares, why they sit at both ends of the range, and a small board solved from them.
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Slant · Solving guide
Two Slant clues one step apart share two squares, and those squares always give exactly two lines between them. That turns a pair of 1s, or a pair of 3s, into four forced lines. Here is a four by four board with no single forced clue where the pair opens everything.
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Since 23 September every competitive daily pays the same fixed ladder: 10 for first, 9.5 for second, half a point less for each place after that, and 0.5 from 20th down. How ties share it, why today's points move until midnight, and one Equation day worked through twice.
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Tents · Solving guide
Every tree on a Tents board needs a tent on one of its four sides. When edges, other trees and grass have closed three of them, the fourth is the tent. Here is a six by six board where that single check places all seven tents.
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Nonograms · Solving guide
A short run in a long line gives no overlap, so it looks like there is nothing to fill. One filled square from a crossing column changes that. Here is how to measure a run's reach, how to tell which run owns a square, and a worked 6 by 6 board.
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Any board you have finished in the Library can be played again, as often as you like. A replay is saved as its own attempt and never touches your first result, your standings, your Profile or your badges. Here is where Play again appears, the rules it follows and one board played twice.
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Five Letters · Solving guide
Guess a word with two Es and one comes back gold, the other grey. The grey one is not telling you the E is missing. It is telling you how many there are. Here is how the colours are handed out, three ways to read a repeat, and a worked board.
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Storm · Solving guide
A cross sign between two blank Storm cells does not tell you which is the bolt, but it does tell you the pair holds one bolt and one cloud. Count that against the row's three and three and the other cells often settle. An original example, checked against the game's own rules.
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Your Profile can show 9.5 for a game, 1.85 for the league and 18.5 for recent form, all from the same four results. Each divides by something different. Here is what each number measures, worked through two league days, plus how Compare players decides who won a day.
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Untangle · Solving guide
Every Untangle board on HubbardGames is a single loop of knots, which turns a mess of crossings into a question of order. An original seven knot board, checked against the game's own crossing counter, where four knots stay put and three drags finish it.
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Group Drop · Solving guide
In Group Drop the obvious opening is the largest block on the board. On this original four by four board it is one of two openings that make a full clear impossible. The small pair that clears it, why it works, and how to spot it, checked by exhaustive search.
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Word Weave · Solving guide
Word Weave tells you how long each hidden word is and nothing else. An original five by five board, checked by tracing every word in the answer bank through every square, where the seven-letter clue has exactly one home and the three-letter clue has seven.
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The streak on your Profile counts days, not puzzles, and three quite different kinds of play keep a day alive. Catch-up is not one of them. Here is the rule, worked through one week evening by evening.
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Beam Route · Solving guide
On a Beam Route board the receiver tells you more than the source does. An original six by six board, checked against the game engine across every possible mirror setting, where working backwards from the receiver fixes all five mirrors without one wasted turn.
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