In this puzzle, each symbol stands for a whole number between 1 and 9. The number at the end of each row and column equals the sum of the numbers in it. When a symbol appears twice in a square it is doubled. The aim is to work out which number each symbol represents and write these into the grid on the right. There’s a tiny bit of maths involved, but only very simple sums, so don’t let that put you off.
Step 1
A great way to start is by finding a column and row that intersect each other and are exactly the same except for one extra symbol. As you can see below, we’ve found an example of this — the only difference between the two sections highlighted in yellow is that the row has one starfish but the column has two. We can also see that the row’s sum is 17, and the column’s sum is 19, which tells us the extra starfish is worth 2, which we can now place into the grid on the right.
Step 2
As you know a starfish is worth 2, you might find it helpful to mark all the starfish in the grid with a small number 2. Back to our top row: if a starfish is worth 2, that tells us that one camera, one watermelon slice and one pair of sunglasses add up to 15. Can we spot a row or column in the grid that features the exact same three symbols? Yes we can — the bottom row. If we know those three symbols add up to 15, we can subtract them from the total of 19 for that row, which means the beachball must be worth 4.
Step 3
Place a small number 4 next to all the beachballs, and let’s do one more together. If we look at the column furthest to the right, we can see we still need to find out what the sunglasses and watermelon slice are worth. 18 minus 4 (beachball) and 2 (starfish) gives us 12. We can see these two same symbols in the very bottom row, so we can subtract 12 from 19 — as well as 4 for the beachball — leaving us with 3 for the camera. We can now put that value into the grid on the right.
Endgame
Keep following this process and you will find that you’re able to work out the values for all the symbols. Once the puzzle is complete, we like to add up all the numbers in each column and row to double check all the totals are correct… just in case. Can you complete the rest of this puzzle? Good luck!