Category: Flawless Algemy

This is the easiest Flawless Algemy puzzle on the site. It has two solutions via the original Algemy rules, but only one of those solutions gets the target colors exactly correct. See the Flawless Algemy page for further description of the rules, or see the walkthrough below the puzzle.

Note that this sample puzzle, as well as all puzzles on this site, is live and playable. Click on an empty cell to add a gem, or click on one of those gems to remove it. The gems you add have black centers; the targets, which have colored centers, cannot be removed.

First, we’ll cover the basics, and then provide a detailed walkthrough.

The Basics

The outer ring of a target tells you how that target is currently being illuminated, and the goal is for the outer ring to match the center. All colors are formed by combining the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, which always occupy the positions noted on the gem below.

Also, note that the center of a green target has the regions for blue and yellow filled in, since those are the two primary colors that combine to make green. You can simply use the presence/absence of these three regions to solve any puzzle, if the actual colors pose a challenge for any reason.

Detailed Walkthrough

We’ve got two green targets and one yellow target, and we can place gems that are blue, yellow, or red. Since green is made from yellow and blue, those are the only two colors we’ll need.

We won’t have room to place very many gems, so we’ve got to get them to do double duty where we can. There is one place to put a blue gem that illuminates both green targets and does not illuminate the yellow target (bottom left), and there is one place to put a yellow gem that illuminates both green targets and does illuminate the yellow target (top middle). Place those gems.

At this point, all the targets are satisfied, but there are still two empty cells on the right, so the puzzle is not finished. Any gem we place here will need to be yellow to keep the top right target satisfied. A yellow gem in either empty cell would satisfy the original Algemy rules. [This means that this puzzle is not in the original Algemy app, since the puzzles all have exactly one solution.]

But if you try adding a yellow gem to the bottom right, you will see that it makes the bottom green target no longer “flawless”, since that gem would have two yellow components and only one blue. The spots on that gem alert you to this problem.

Instead, place the third gem on the right middle, where it leaves the bottom target in its “flawless” state.

When you see the targets spinning, you’ve solved the puzzle!