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Category: Variety Puzzles

Puzzle #96: Portals (with Kelsey!)

PUZZLE LINKS: JPZ Download | Online Solver So I had a dream about a new crossword type. I ran it past a few people on Discord and they didn’t laugh me off the stage, so here it is. Thanks to Quiara for the suggestion of calling it “Portals.” How does it work? In this puzzle…

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Portals

Puzzle #95: Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow (a “patchwork quilt” puzzle)

PUZZLE LINKS Easier: iPuz Download | Online Solver Harder: PDF Download | Online Solver I’m getting slightly obsessed with this puzzle type. It’s just so pretty! Here’s how you solve: Answers in this puzzle are entered in the rectangular areas, either delineated by colors or by bars. Answers are entered left to right, row by…

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Patchwork Quilt

Puzzle #93: Not Half Bad (a “Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad” puzzle)

 PUZZLE LINKS: PDF Download | Online Solver It’s been a while since we’ve run one of these — it’s a “Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad” puzzle! This is a puzzle type invented by our friend Joon, and one we really like. Remind me how this works? Each answer in this puzzle is a lowercase…

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Puzzles

Puzzle #91: Conga Line (spiral)

 PUZZLE LINKS: iPuz Download | Online Solver We continue our celebration of Kotwords supporting iPuz with a spiral! Remember what a spiral is? When completed, this grid will contain two series of words—one reading inward from 1 to 100, the other outward from 100 back to 1. Every space will be used exactly twice….

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Puzzles

Puzzle #90: Put Some Pep In Your Step (kaidoku)

 PUZZLE LINKS: iPuz Download | Online Solver Exciting news from Jeff Davidson – his crossword scraper and kotwords tools now support iPuz export! I’ve also worked with Jeff to extend the iPuz definition to allow for coded crosswords like today’s, so I thought I’d celebrate by releasing such a puzzle today! Do you remember…

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Kaidoku

Puzzle #87: Birth of the Cool (diagramless)

 PUZZLE LINKS: iPuz Download | PDF Download | Online Solver It’s my first foray into diagramless puzzles! I think this is a fun puzzle type and this should be a relatively gentle introduction to them, if this is your first. In case you don’t know what these puzzles are: they’re just regular crosswords except…

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Diagramless

Puzzle #84: Patchwork Quilt

PUZZLE LINKS Easier: iPuz Download | Online Solver Harder: PDF Download | Online Solver Eric Berlin invented a puzzle type called “Patchwork” (example puzzle here) in which entries go in the grid either in rows, or in “patches” like the following It’s a cool puzzle type, but we’re doubling down on the patches in this…

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Patchwork Quilt

Puzzle #81: Bloom County (a Flower Power puzzle!)

PUZZLE LINKS: JPZ Download | Online Solver | PDF A Flower Power puzzle for you today! This is a new puzzle type to this site but it’s been around for a while, having been introduced to the United States by none other than Will Shortz! He discovered it in an Italian magazine and brought it…

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Flower Power

Puzzle #80: Going Beyond (Kaidoku)

PUZZLE LINKS: JPZ Download | Online Solver Your usual reminder of what the heck a kaidoku is: Each answer in a kaidoku, or coded crossword, is a common, lowercase English word. The numbers 1 through 26 each stand for a different letter of the alphabet, and instances of a given number stand for the same…

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Kaidoku

Puzzle #79: Decisions Were Made (acrostic by JibbyMAX!)

PUZZLE LINKS: JPZ Download | Online Solver Bonus Tuesday puzzle for you, and it’s a guest acrostic by Twitch streamer extraordinaire and all-around great guy JibbyMAX! Jibby, what do you have to say? Hi everyone! I’m very excited to present my second ever acrostic [ed note: check out the first one here!]. I was inspired…

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Acrostic

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