How to solve this 6×6 logic puzzle
A
B
C
D
E
F
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3🐱
🐱
🐱
4🐱
5
6
🐱
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This 6×6 board rates as gentle (difficulty score 661). Solving it from scratch takes 16 logical steps, using 4 techniques: Single cell, Row/column exclusion, Adjacency clear, Paired regions. Every step below is forced: nothing here is a guess.
- First, together, two regions have open cells only in columns E and F; with one marker each, those two markers have to fill exactly those two columns, so every other region's open cells there can be cleared.
- Next, together, two regions have open cells only in columns C and D; with one marker each, those two markers have to fill exactly those two columns, so every other region's open cells there can be cleared.
- Then, together, two regions have open cells only in rows 5 and 6; with one marker each, those two markers have to fill exactly those two rows, so every other region's open cells there can be cleared.
- After that, place a marker at D4. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 4, column D, and its region. Placing here also clears its 3 touching neighbours.
- Now, place a marker at E1. Column 5 has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 1, column E, and its region.
- From there, place a marker at C2. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 2, column C, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
- Following that, place a marker at A3. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 3, column A, and its region.
- First, place a marker at B6. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 6, column B, and its region.
- Finally, place a marker at F5. Region has exactly one open cell left.
The key move here was Paired regions. Once you can spot that, this board falls quickly. ∎