Solution - Staggered Starts

by Dave Shukan

Answer: Click here to reveal

This puzzle consists of 10 individual 5x5 puzzles, where each of the 10 entries in a puzzle extends past at least one edge of the 5x5 grid. This is essentially spelled out in the title and flavortext, assisted by the shape and shading of the grid. Solving will further confirm that things will only fit together by staggering the starting spaces of the entries within the grid.

Solvers complete the grids in the expected way. For each puzzle, the “outside” letters that fall within the shaded ring, two steps away from the central 5x5, form a word reading clockwise around the ring. (This should be clear both from the shading and from the flavortext hint that “what would be most useful is only a couple of steps away.”)

Once these 10 ring words are found, solvers should do what they have done with the previous sets of 10 words – fit them into the grid. This reveals a final word in the shaded outside ring – DUSTRAG – which is the answer to the puzzle. (Since the 10 words can be entered into the grid in two ways that are reflections of each other, the final answer might read counterclockwise in the ring, a possibility that solvers should easily recognize if needed.)

The individual puzzles were presented in alphabetical order of their interim solution words. The solved grids appear below.

AILING
DRAMATIC
ENGLAND
FITNESS
GRAPNEL
LAST NAME
OUTLINES
POINTER
REGIMENT
SMOGGIEST

ENDGAME GRID
DUSTRAG