Minima 7 is a fun puzzle and if you’ve completed the first 6, then this one shouldn’t be too difficult. There are some similarities to Minima 5, but to me, this one is more straightforward and thus a little easier. But of course, your mileage may vary.
The box itself has one major opening that looks like the place where a majority of the pieces will enter, but there are also 2 other windows that could be insertion points. Also, there is a narrow window that is clearly there for rotations – the unique thing is that this window wraps around the corner. Kind of a cool design feature.
The four pieces will completely fill the box, so there are no voids once solved.
Like the other Minima puzzles, the start is confusing. Where to the pieces go? What is the final arrangement? Which pieces should go in first? etc. It’s all up in the air and the only way to figure it out is to start experimenting. For, me, I have the best success when I do 2 things. First, I try to determine which piece will go in last. I find that oftentimes this is easier than you might expect. For example, if all the voids need to be filled, then the last piece is generally a simple piece, not a twisted piece that takes 2 moves to get into place. So, look for straight pieces to fit into the smaller entryways. The second thing, is to look at the box and determine how to use the rotational windows. So far in the series there haven’t been any trick windows. Every one of them has had a purpose and has been used. If we assume they all have a purpose, then what is that purpose and which pieces work for that purpose?
Putting aside the final piece, I am now left with only 3 pieces. With the strategy above, I can work through the options of what is available and I eventually come up with a configuration that makes sense and theoretically should work if I can get the pieces into the correct position. There is definitely a tricky move that requires dexterity. It is similar to something we saw in Minima 5, but even a little harder maybe because of lack of finger holes. The move is very nice though and the rest of the puzzle is trivial.
Overall another fun puzzle in the lineup. The difficulty has steadily ramped up and the next one – Minima 8 – has the trickiest move we’ve seen yet. Stay tuned for more.
