Patches · No. 164 · Friday edition
LinkedIn Patches #164 Answer (Aug 28, 2026)
Hint: Place the large numbered patches first — they have the fewest ways to fit.
Show Patches #164 answer as text
- Patch 1: R1C2–R2C2 (2 cells)
- Patch 2: R1C3–R1C7 (5 cells)
- Patch 3: R2C3–R2C5 (3 cells)
- Patch 4: R1C1–R6C1 (6 cells)
- Patch 5: R3C2–R3C5 (4 cells)
- Patch 6: R2C6–R5C6 (4 cells)
- Patch 7: R4C2–R6C3 (6 cells)
- Patch 8: R4C4–R5C5 (4 cells)
- Patch 9: R2C7–R6C7 (5 cells)
- Patch 10: R6C4–R6C6 (3 cells)
- Patch 11: R7C1–R7C4 (4 cells)
- Patch 12: R7C5–R7C7 (3 cells)
About Patches #164
- Patches #164 splits a 7×7 grid into 12 patches.
- Clue shapes: 1 square, 2 wide, 3 tall, 6 free-form.
- 2 clues show no size, so those patches can be any area.
- LinkedIn rates it Hard.
- It has 12 patches, more than the average of 9.4 across the previous 7 puzzles.
- Each patch is one rectangle holding exactly one clue, with the clue's shape and, where a number is shown, exactly that many squares.
- Only one free-form rectangle of 5 squares fits inside the grid around the free-form 5 clue at R1C7 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 1×5 block from R1C3 to R1C7.
- Only one wide rectangle of 4 squares fits inside the grid around the wide 4 clue at R3C3 without taking in another clue, so its patch must be the 1×4 block from R3C2 to R3C5.
- With the patch for the wide 4 clue at R3C3 fixed, the tall clue with no number at R1C2 has only one rectangle left, the 2×1 block from R1C2 to R2C2.