Ponder now has eight puzzle families. The two newest are Bridges, which is about connecting islands, and Mini Sudoku, which is about placing numbers.
Bridges
Each island shows how many bridges it needs. You connect islands with straight bridges, one or two between any pair, and bridges can’t cross. The rule that catches people out is the last one: every island has to end up in one connected network. It’s easy to get every count right in one corner and leave that corner stranded.
Start with an island that has only one neighbour it could possibly reach. Drag a bridge towards it, or select both islands. The ring around each island fills as it gets its bridges, so you can see at a glance what’s still needed. The Bridges guide walks through a first move and explains when a bridge has to be double.
Mini Sudoku
If you’ve played Sudoku, you already know the rules: each row, column and box gets the numbers 1 to 6 once. The boxes are three cells wide and two tall. With 36 cells instead of 81 you can take in the whole board at a glance, but the same row, column and box logic still does the work.
Select a cell and choose a number from the pad below the board, or use your keyboard. A good first move is to find a nearly full row and check its missing numbers against the columns. The Mini Sudoku guide shows how.
Where to find them
Both families are in the Library, with Learn to play boards and Gentle, Standard and Challenging puzzles. Try Bridges if you like fitting connections together, or Mini Sudoku if numbers are more your thing. Hints are there when you need a next step.
Changes to the Daily set and Weekly collection
The Daily set still has six puzzles, so each day it now picks six of the eight families, and never the same six as the day before. Mini Sudoku appears at Standard difficulty in the Daily set; the other families are Challenging.
The Weekly collection now covers all eight families, with two puzzles at each difficulty for each family: 48 boards in total. Work through the new families on their own or mix them in with the ones you know. The guide to ways of playing explains how the Daily set and the Weekly collection differ.