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This question is part of the best-puzzle award series

What are your nominations for the best puzzles, here on Puzzling.SE, of the first quarter ( January / February / March ) 2022?

Suggested guidelines for nomination:

  • Nominate each individual puzzle in a separate answer, so they can be upvoted/downvoted separately.

  • No more than 3 nominations per person.

  • Don't nominate your own puzzles.

  • Before you nominate a puzzle, check to see if someone else has already nominated it. If they have, then add to that nomination as a comment (or edit it) instead of nominating the same puzzle again.

  • In your nomination, explain what it is that (in your opinion) makes the nominated puzzle such a good one.

Some lists to help jog your memory (your nomination doesn't have to be from these lists):

Algorithmically selected "best of":

Best by votes/views:

Meta-meta issues:

Q: Is this kind of thing allowed on SE?
A: Yes, Photography SE and Sci-Fi & Fantasy SE do something very similar.

Q: What's the point?
A1: To highlight and encourage good practice in a way that goes beyond upvotes.
A2: To work towards building a 'hall of fame' of some of the best puzzles on the site (perhaps to reside on a future puzzling.SE blog) - think of it as our 'greatest hits album'.
A3: To prompt members to put forward their own reflections on what makes a high-quality puzzle.

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Snakes and Adders - A New Grid Puzzle by athin

This may not be the highest rated or most viewed puzzle of the quarter, but this post by @athin really spoke to me for other reasons...

To me, this puzzle exemplifies the spirit of Puzzling.SE. This site isn't (or perhaps shouldn't be) a place for churning out low-effort rep-seeking carbon-copies of existing riddles or calculation puzzles; instead, its purpose (or, at least, one of its key purposes among many) is to hold up those puzzles that do something new, or ingenious, or surprising. And this particular puzzle deserves to be hailed for a display of proper puzzling craft and innovation.

A new puzzle type, its rules well thought out, the grid design pleasingly symmetrical - and, to top it all off, it all came to the OP in a dream! A pleasure to see a master at work, and for all of us to be among the first to enjoy this novel creation's debut!

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀, by risky mysteries

This puzzle was the highest scored of all questions of this quarter, and for good reason.

To me, this puzzle does good credit to Puzzling SE. Where many puzzles here are creative and interesting, this question goes beyond that. It's immediately eye-catching, and draws viewers in with its unique appearance. It's also quite literally a breath of fresh air, when we're used to seeing puzzles filled with cryptic symbols and letters. The answer is simple, yet hidden by just the right amount of mystery.

Quite fittingly, it was solved by our highest-reputation user, Deusovi, and its enjoyable elegance will never fade. Well done, Risky Mysteries!

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