Sentinels #158

Wednesday, August 5, 2026 · medium · an archive solve, which never changes a streak

About this board

Grid
9 × 9
Regions
9
Ideas needed
6
What this one asks of you - mild spoilers
  • Region locked to a line. If every open cell of a region sits in one row, that region’s sentinel is somewhere in that row - so no other cell in the row can hold one. Cross the rest of the row out.
  • Last cell in a region. Every coloured region holds exactly one sentinel. A region down to a single open cell is solved.
  • Last cell in a column. Every column holds exactly one sentinel. When only one cell in a column survives, place the sentinel there.
  • Line locked to a region. The mirror image: if every open cell of a row lies inside a single region, that region’s sentinel is that row’s sentinel, so the region’s cells outside the row can be crossed out.
  • Neighbour squeeze. Sentinels never touch, even diagonally. When a row’s candidates are packed into a narrow band, any cell in the row above or below that would touch every one of those candidates can be crossed out.
  • Last cell in a row. Every row holds exactly one sentinel. When a row has only one cell left that is not crossed out, that cell must be the sentinel.

Every one of these is explained properly in the Sentinels guide.