The Doppit Almanac · No. 16

Skyit, a daily Skyscrapers puzzle

Place towers to match the edge views

What it is

Skyscrapers, the newsstand classic, reports to the almanac wearing the name Skyit. A tower rises in every cell, heights 1 to N, and the numbers round the edge are the inspectors: each one states how many towers it can see down its own street.

A tall tower hides every shorter one behind it, so a 1 stares straight at the tallest and an N enjoys the full staircase. The rest is sightlines and stubborn patience. Every daily block has exactly one legal skyline.

How it plays

Five clauses make up the building code.

• No height repeats in any row or column.
• A taller tower hides every shorter one behind it; a clue counts only what shows.
• A clue of N sees all N towers: its line climbs the whole way.
• A clue of 1 sees one tower: the tallest stands at the front.
• A blank edge holds no clue, and grey towers are given.

The difficulties

The city issues permits in three grades. Expert is unlisted, and open for practice. Easy tops out in thirty seconds to a minute. Medium is one to three minutes of squinting down avenues. Hard is five wide and runs three to six, and its last avenue will not settle until the whole block stands. Expert is five wide too, but where hard permits three rounds at most of testing every height in a square, expert demands six and allows ten. A new skyline goes up daily, and admission is free.

Nearby in the almanac: Rankit, Summit and Stellit