Puzzle Description Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers

#1: AM (adrian) on Feb 14, 2026

Cool! Not easy, but easier than others in this series. No guessing.

Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers

Enjoyable solve.

Question: how come this puzzles cannot be rated for solvability?

Re: Jota
When I create a puzzle, the creation tool has a checker which is very powerful, and can discover if the puzzle has multiple solutions. The checker also looks to see if the puzzle is solvable using only line logic, or only line & color logic. As long as the checker determines that the puzzle can be solved using one of these two methods, then when the puzzle is published the solvability status is pre-set.

One of the admins can probably explain more about how the system works and why it was setup this way. Props to whoever created and/or improved the creation tool checker, it greatly increases the speed at which puzzles can be created and tested.

I am very careful when I add blots to make sure a puzzle never moves beyond line & color logic only. My goal is to get the puzzle close to that line, but to never cross it.

Thanks!

It's Jan who created the checker. He had a strong interest in creating and improving puzzle-solvers. He's been gone since 2015; since then I am the admin and am happy to answer questions.

As Eric said: When the checker *can* tell if a puzzle is solvable, then when the puzzle is published it goes online with its solvability set. The checker is good, but it can't always tell. When the checker *can't* tell, then the puzzle goes online with a question mark, and a human person needs to come along and set the solvability. There are about ten people on the site who can set this.

Thanks!

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