If you’ve been doing the daily LinkedIn puzzle lineup this week, you probably noticed the difficulty curve wobbling a bit — a few easy days, then a couple that made you pause. I pulled together a compact guide to the five main games (Mini Sudoku, Zip, Tango, Queens, Pinpoint and Crossclimb) across Dec. 10–14 so you can check answers, spot patterns, or peek at how the week progressed without reloading each daily post.
Quick take on the week
- The Mini Sudoku kept steady: little 6×6 boards with reliable layouts — the sort of quick warm-up that rarely surprises.
- Zip and Tango offered the most variety in pacing: some days were short and punchy, others prolonged with many waypoints or few givens that forced a few deductions.
- Queens jumped between 7×7, 8×8 and 9×9 boards across the week. If you like placement puzzles, the 9×9 days on Dec. 12 and 14 were the most satisfying.
- Pinpoint and Crossclimb were where the themes and wordplay shone — good fodder if you enjoy lateral thinking rather than pure logic.
- Dec. 10 — Types of pasta sauce (Vodka, Carbonara, Pesto, Alfredo, Marinara).
- Dec. 11 — Words that commonly precede “well” in set phrases (clues like Oil, Stair, Ink, Fare).
- Dec. 12 — Shades of gray (Ash, Smoke, Battleship, Slate, Silver — all pointing to gray tones).
- Dec. 13 — Famous people whose last names are bird names (Taylor, Crow, Finch, Nightingale, Hawk).
- Dec. 14 — Elements named for scientists (hints referencing Meitner, Bohr, Nobel, Einstein, Curie).
- Dec. 10: TACK, TICK, DICK, DISK, DISH … final pair: FISH TACO.
- Dec. 11: STORE, STARE, STARS, SOARS, BOARS … final pair: STORY BOARD.
- Dec. 12: KING, KIND, WIND, WINE, WIDE … final pair: RING SIDE.
- Dec. 13: BANES, LANES, LINES, LIVES, LIVER … final pair: RIVER BANKS.
- Dec. 14: LORDS, LARDS, CARDS, CARLS, CARLO … final pair: CARBO LOADS.
Notable Pinpoint themes (the memorable ones)
Across the five days the Pinpoint puzzles leaned into tidy, recognizable themes rather than obscure trivia:
If you missed a day and like the little “aha” moments, Pinpoint was an efficient way to get them.
Crossclimb: the weekly word-threads
Crossclimb kept its usual pattern of short clues that chain together into a theme by the end of the grid. Each day finished with a two-word pair revealed by arranging the answers:
Some of the linkages are cheeky (and one of the finales leans toward playful compounding), but that’s the charm: a rapid chain of small word puzzles that coalesce into a single phrase.
Zip and Tango — how to think about them
Zip is a path-tracing puzzle; solutions vary by the number of waypoints and the grid’s shape. This week you’ll find days that are quick runs (fewer points, straightforward routes) and days that read like a small maze with many turns. Tango is the light/dark fill puzzle (Sun/Moon or X/O style). Earlier in the week Tango often gave plenty of prefilled squares and resolved quickly; the later puzzles trimmed givens and made you reason more about adjacency and symmetry.
If you prefer something hands-on, Zip is tactile; Tango rewards pattern recognition.
Queens and Mini Sudoku: sizes and examples
Mini Sudoku (6×6) remained predictable and fast every day — ideal for a coffee-break puzzle. Queens swung between 7×7, 8×8 and 9×9 throughout the week; the larger grids on Dec. 12 and 14 are where placements became genuinely satisfying. For example, on Dec. 14 the 9×9 Queens solution placed queens in columns: 2, 4, 9, 6, 8, 5, 1, 7, 3 for rows 1–9 respectively — a tidy spread that avoids obvious diagonal conflicts.
Want the daily nitty-gritty?
If you like synoptic write-ups and puzzle commentary, the day-by-day posts include the full Mini Sudoku rows, Zip movement instructions, Tango fills, Queens coordinates, the Pinpoint reveal and the Crossclimb list with final pairings. They’re helpful if you need to cross-check a score or confirm a tricky step.
If you’re hunting for more gaming coverage while you wait between puzzles, there are write-ups about other daily and hardware gaming topics worth a look — for example how VR content is landing on headsets like PS VR2 in recent lineups, and an update that lets the PlayStation Portal stream your PS5 library directly: Flat2VR’s PS VR2 November lineup and PlayStation Portal’s new cloud streaming capabilities.
Enjoyed these puzzles or found a clever shortcut? Drop a note in the comments on the day’s post or scribble your method next time — these are the kinds of puzzles people love to show off about. If you want, I can post a breakdown for any single day (step-by-step Zip routes, Tango fills, or full Queens coordinates) — tell me which date and I’ll unpack it.