If you're new to grid-based logic puzzles, this tutorial will teach you the basics. Start with the "Introduction" first, then move on to the tutorials discussing specific clues or solving methods. Each tutorial contains a number of different slides - you can advance to the next slide by clicking "Next slide" at the bottom of each page, or by using the circled numerical links below each slide. Choose your specific tutorial from the list below to get started.
Slide #1
Multi-elimination clues are relatively simple. They provide you with a list of a certain number of people, places or things (depending on the puzzle's backstory).
In this case, the clue describes five people - either by name, by tattoo design, by tattoo color or by the price of their tattoo.
Slide #2
When you see a multi-elimination clue like this, the first thing you want to do is break it down simply into its component parts. In this case, we've got five different people listed:
1. Daryl
2. Whoever has the Taurus tattoo
3. Whoever paid $40
4. Whoever has the blue tattoo
5. Whoever paid $55
Next, find each of the rows and columns mentioned in that clue...
Slide #3
Wherever any of those rows and columns intersect, you can place an X.
Why? Because the clue tells us that each of those characteristics belong to a different person. And since no item/characteristic can be used more than once in a puzzle, we immediately know that any item/characteristic mentioned in the clue cannot be paired with any other item/characteristic mentioned in the clue.
Therefore, Daryl cannot be Taurus, $40, blue or $55. Taurus cannot be $40, blue or $55. And the blue tattoo cannot be $40 or $55.
Slide #4
You can often extract a large number of false relationships from multi-elimination clues like these. Take your time with them, and make sure you don't miss any!
Because of the geometric pattern of false relationships these clues often leave on the grid, many solvers prefer to tackle any multi-elimination clues first, whenever they are found in a puzzle. It is much easier to enter all these false relationships on an empty grid, where you can easily see where each item intersects with another. (It's also much easier to see when you may have missed an X somewhere because of the "cross-hatch" pattern of X marks these clues create on the grid.)
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