Mazes can take many different forms besides the classic type which has been populating my articles, usually looking like this:
In fact, mazes of different types continually spring up as maze crafters try to find new ways to confound puzzle solvers. Many new types of mazes have been invented, changing the rules slightly, making old, established habits for solving mazes useless. Because new kinds appear continually in different forms, I cannot give anything like an exhaustive treatise on solving mazes with a twist, but I can give some tips on some of the more common ones, and a reminder of what to look for when solving new-fangled mazes with unusual rules.
The main things to remember when attempting a maze with a twist are as follows:
First, and most importantly, do not panic.
Second, get a solid understanding of rules for the maze, and consider the kinds of solutions those rules may make possible.
Third, expect the maze crafter to do the unexpected. Do not assume the path will progress in the normal and natural way –– often the rules contain loopholes made intentionally for exploitation. This is related to the second tip.
Fourth, remember the tricks you find the maze crafter using for later –– this can come in handy for many mazes, even those that seem to be an unrelated kind.
This is an example of a maze with one-way paths. First, the basic rule: this maze works just like an ordinary one, except for the arrows, which are meant to be pointing away from Start and toward Finish, so that the final pathway always goes through arrows pointing the same direction. To be clear, it is not legal to try to sneak a line around an arrow without touching it; going down the pathway at all means the arrow applies. In the case of an arrow in an awkward location, like this:
the arrow does not point you in the only possible direction. You just can’t go the other way past it, like this:
Hopefully, this clears up some confusion for whoever might fall afoul of my rather amateur arrow-placing.
There are many tricks to use to solve this kind of maze. Here is one example:
Here there are two paths coming directly from Start, both pointing the same direction and converging into one path. Now, if this path they converge into is part of the solution, because there are two ways to get to it from Start, there are really two different solutions. So, since there can only be one answer, it is plain this path leads to a dead end. This situation is also possible in an ordinary maze, of course, but in arrow mazes it is less obvious.
Another common type of unusual maze is the checkpoint maze,where the object is not only to travel from Start to Finish, but also to go through a number of marked locations, often in a particular order. This type of maze has many other forms, as well. These include puzzles with the object of solving the maze along with collecting as few stars or other small objects found along the path as possible, and puzzles where the solver collects numbers littering the trail, trying to add up to a certain number. For example, a maze might be solved by a path with a 5, a 3, three 2s, and a 1, adding up to fifteen.
Checkpoint mazes are more difficult than they appear. Often, there are multiple paths between, say, checkpoints 2 and 3, and the solver must choose whichever one does not interfere with paths between other checkpoints, since no path can ever be used twice.
The last most common twist added to a maze is bridges. This does not necessarily refer to mazes with bridges throughout; often, there are only a few, like this:
As always, remember to expect the unexpected. There is no real reason to believe that only one of the bridges will be used; there is no real reason the path cannot go across by way of one path, and then double back on another, and cross over again one final time before reaching Finish.
Here again are the tips for deciphering unfamiliar mazes. They will be useful for this week’s featured maze:
- Don’t panic
- Understand the rules
- Expect the unexpected
- Don’t forget what you learn
The object of this maze is to find a path from any two points on the outside of the oval which cut through it. Therefore, there are no defined Start and Finish –– finding those is part of the puzzle, too.