QED Logic quod erat demonstrandum
Logic Ascent

How to solve this 6×6 logic puzzle

6×6 · gentle · 11 steps

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 777). Solving it from scratch takes 16 logical steps, using 7 techniques: Single cell, Row/column exclusion, Adjacency clear, Region confinement, Line confinement, Paired regions, Shape squeeze. Every step below is forced: nothing here is a guess.

  1. First, every open cell left in this region sits in column F, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
  2. Next, every open cell in row 6 belongs to the same region, so that region's marker has to be somewhere in this row; that clears every other open cell in the region.
  3. Then, together, two regions have open cells only in rows 1 and 2; 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.
  4. After that, place a marker at B3. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 3, column B, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
  5. Now, place a marker at A6. Column 1 has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 6, column A, and its region.
  6. From there, every open cell left in this region sits in column E, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
  7. Following that, place a marker at F2. Row 2 has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 2, column F, and its region.
  8. First, every remaining candidate in this region touches D4 and D5, so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear them, and they can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
  9. Next, place a marker at C5. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 5, column C, and its region.
  10. Then, place a marker at D1. Region has exactly one open cell left.
  11. Finally, place a marker at E4. Region has exactly one open cell left.

The key move here was Shape squeeze. Once you can spot that, this board falls quickly.