low times

[MewZzz]

Thanks, yeah i do that too. I'm consistently getting under 50 and sometimes under 40, but yeah. Thanks

[AnthC1]

Yea I dont know anything about puzzles other than 8x1 because that is all I play but in terms of what I look at when I start the puzzle. The first thing I do is quickly scan the board for instant stars, what i mean by that is the 1x1 colors or the 2x1 next to another small shape that gives you a couple instant stars. From there I would solve the puzzle normally as that is usually enough to finish off the puzzle quickly. If I dont see something like that right away I always look for row/column stars. What I mean by that is finding chunks where there are one or a couple colors can only be within a certain amount of rows or columns due to them being "thin". This trick comes up a lot more often that you would think and its why I look for that first as I can almost always solve a puzzle starting from eliminating using that trick. If you are generally taking 20+ seconds to solve an average puzzle then you dont need to do this but once you want to get down to trying to average single digit you have to start including "guessing/intuition" not only to get lucky and solve puzzles very fast but it is now how I solve all puzzles as I find even if I mess up I can always use my guesses as a baseline and solve backwards from the mistakes. So if I go through the whole puzzle and solve it wrong in 8 seconds, usually only 1 or 2 stars are misplaced and once you have the whole board "solved" you can generally find the mistakes a lot faster than solving normally, thats generally how I do all 8x1 now, solving backwards. But for the longest time as I was trying to consistently get on the boards and get like 20-25 seconds I always fully placed dots, I only recently started not doing that and its significantly improved my times but I dont think that would have worked without the countless puzzles I did properly. Long story short just play a lot and you learn tricks.

[MewZzz]

The under 30 was only 29 though lol

[MewZzz]

damn ok. i just wanna consistently get under 30. my first under 30 was actually today i believe! but yeah thats crazy. the thing about the skipping was that there was another forum about how dragging/pulling dots/x's skips, and one user found that the issue was most likely with chrome because when they switched browsers it was fixed. but thanks guys! do you have any patterns you would like to suggest about? i've figured out a few but theres probably many more. thanks so much guys.

[kikuovi]

Honestly for 2 stars you can still get top 3 on a puzzle by placing dots - at least from my experience playing 12x12 2 stars.

[muffinimal]

Just finished a 8x1 in 18 seconds. Probably my PR. No dots on that level is sometimes a bit harder, but I am starting to get the hang of it. On 2 stars, however, that's a different story...

[bananabread]

Yeah, I don't typically guess so without using dots the lowest I've gotten on an 8x1 is 12 seconds. For those like 9 second times you just have to guess, which I'm not great at because I don't really see those patterns as it's not something I've practiced. I'm trying to get better at not using dots, but I find it kind of impossible to complete something like a 10x1 without guessing or dots

[MaxMik]

Like AnthC1, I also spend the bulk of my time doing 8x1 puzzles. It's possible to get times below 10s without guessing, but it is rare (for me at least). I would recommend spending a chunk of time going through some puzzles slowly, and really thinking about the mechanics of how to find a solution. I spent an afternoon doing this when I started, and I found a few "algorithms" (or heuristics, more accurately) that help to chunk grids down. After a while, guesses get rebranded as 'intuition', and they end up being correct more often than not. But, this comes with time! I would recommend against making a habit of guessing before you have a strong understanding of how to find solutions quickly. On the topic of speed, I agree that not placing dots is a good habit to get into (but I am often guilty of placing dots quickly at the start of a puzzle). I use a mouse, with a relatively low sensitivity - this is a hangover from the many hours I spent playing bullet chess online, which was very useful for developing the dexterity that brings speed.

[AnthC1]

I am also using chrome on a computer, maybe check the debounce time on your mouse? I raerly have any issues, maybe one in a couple hundred puzzles it bugs

[muffinimal]

Just tried no dots and the results are better than I thought they would be. Without rushing I average about 60 seconds. My best in about 8 tries was 38 seconds. Definitely something I could improve.

Mewzzz, I am on a computer, with chrome. I see some messages sometimes, but I never experience any skipping.

[MewZzz]

Yeah thanks. I figured i would probably have to use less dots, since it takes up so much time, especially on a computer and on a chrome browser where it frequently skips.

[muffinimal]

Thanks, AnthC1! I sometimes hit sub 30, but rarely without placing dots. The 'gambling'-aspect is something I hadn't considered as a strategy, especially while looking at the whole in stead of looking at stars. I guess I should start doing that in stead of staying within my comfort zone.

[AnthC1]

for 8x1. You have to get used to the patterns to get your itmes down to sub 25 seconds, you should be able to look at a puzzle and have an idea of how the solution will look like withina couple seconds and the rest is being quick at recognizing things on the fly. to get 15 seconds or lower you need to start getting quick with placements and use less dots, for 10 or under, which is what i strive for for every puzzle now you need to instantly start solving the puzzle, "gamble" on the where the stars will be by quickly recognizing patterns and not using dots. Once you do this enough times you can comfortablky start gambling on every puzzle you solve and when it doesnt work, you should be able to back your way out into the solution by spotting your mistakes and salvaging the time to about 15 seconds. Long story short just play a lot more and try to recognize patterns and try to solve the puzzle as a whole at once rather than solving each star independently. Once you get comfortable start using less dots.

[MewZzz]

Ok thanks guys thats a lot more responses than i was expecting!

[bananabread]

I use computer and I can pretty consistently get under 35 for 1 star puzzles, I don't usually reset but it'll just be a slower time. You just start to recognize patterns with different shapes and where dots have to be placed