Pipped by 8 seconds... Maybe I shouldn't've fiddled with my music mid-puzzle! On a more genuine note, slitherlinks tend to be consistently among the fastest-solved puzzles across the site: I'm wondering whether Gareth is throwing us easy ones, or if they're inherently more simplistic than other puzzle types due to, say, there being less logic tricks that can be applied to solve them?
Posted 28th Apr 2026 at 06:41
winterer Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: EasyBest completion time: 1:40Time on first attempt: 2:03
I'd agree that they are inherently easier. Once you know the patterns, you can apply them at speed, since humans are good at visual pattern recognition. Few require exploration, but rarely at a level of the harder other puzzles.
That said, a year or two ago, we were treated to an insanely large one. I'd like to see another one of those!
Posted 29th Apr 2026 at 12:28
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has not played this puzzle yet
I wonder also if slitherlink 'selects' those solvers who want to solve it, since it is skipped by those who struggle in a way that doesn't apply as much to the many sudoku types, and also I think that it's quite straightforward to guess quickly on slitherlink (when solving via puzzlemix at least) if you are trying to solve for speed - which is generally a fiddlier process with sudoku.
Posted 7th May 2026 at 18:46
JoergWausW Daily subscriber Has not played this puzzle yet
just found this thread... I usually try to solve these puzzles using logic, placing white lines and excluding paths to find the logic way. That seems to require way more time than the fastest people here. I guess with this kind of puzzle, you can start somewhere and just start drawing, not setting a single white bit until you finish, fixing wrong trails on the way. With enough experience, that should work pretty fast.
I tend to do the same way of solving with Nurikabe puzzles, starting to place something and fixing inceherecies 'on the fly', ending up pretty fast and often correct.
Hanjie puzzles sometimes have the disadvantage that sometimes you can just draw the picture - same here, you could start drawing and in the end checking the numbers. I try to use logic only to see how that compares to others. It's not as bad as with the Slitherlinks...
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A yellow/light blue highlight in the time distribution charts highlights your time, where relevant.
Rating scores out of 10.0 show the average difficulty rating chosen by users, where 1.0 is "Easy" and 10.0 is "Hard".
If a puzzle is opened more than once, including by loading from a saved position, then this is potentially a significant aid so it is listed as being completed with 'multiple sessions' for the purpose of the best time/average rating displays above.
Minor aid is defined as no more than one use of 'Check solution' when incomplete and/or no more than one use of 'Check solution' when wrong; and/or using highlighting aids (show repeated digits, show broken inequalities and show valid/invalid placements [slitherlink] only). Major aid is any and all other use of the solving aids except for 'show wrong'.
On a more genuine note, slitherlinks tend to be consistently among the fastest-solved puzzles across the site: I'm wondering whether Gareth is throwing us easy ones, or if they're inherently more simplistic than other puzzle types due to, say, there being less logic tricks that can be applied to solve them?
That said, a year or two ago, we were treated to an insanely large one. I'd like to see another one of those!
I usually try to solve these puzzles using logic, placing white lines and excluding paths to find the logic way. That seems to require way more time than the fastest people here.
I guess with this kind of puzzle, you can start somewhere and just start drawing, not setting a single white bit until you finish, fixing wrong trails on the way. With enough experience, that should work pretty fast.
I tend to do the same way of solving with Nurikabe puzzles, starting to place something and fixing inceherecies 'on the fly', ending up pretty fast and often correct.
Hanjie puzzles sometimes have the disadvantage that sometimes you can just draw the picture - same here, you could start drawing and in the end checking the numbers. I try to use logic only to see how that compares to others. It's not as bad as with the Slitherlinks...
You can however view other players' statistics and comments in the tables above.