How to solve this 6×6 logic puzzle
A
B
C
D
E
F
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
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3
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4
🐱
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5
6🐱
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This 6×6 board rates as gentle (difficulty score 656). Solving it from scratch takes 17 logical steps, using 5 techniques: Single cell, Row/column exclusion, Adjacency clear, Region confinement, 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, every open cell left in this region sits in column D, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
- Then, every open cell left in this region sits in row 6, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the row.
- After that, place a marker at E5. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 5, column E, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
- Now, place a marker at F1. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 1, column F, and its region.
- From there, every open cell left in this region sits in row 2, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the row.
- Following that, place a marker at D3. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 3, column D, and its region. Placing here also clears its 2 touching neighbours.
- First, place a marker at B2. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 2, column B, and its region.
- Next, place a marker at A4. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 4, column A, and its region.
- Finally, place a marker at C6. Region has exactly one open cell left.
The key move here was Paired regions. Once you can spot that, this board falls quickly. ∎