Having a bunch of completed hard puzzles laying beneath you as you walk or on your wall like a trophy will make you feel as indestructible and as powerful as Kratos himself… Although having the patience to complete one of these mind-bending puzzles may not be quite the God of War’s forte!
Anyway, here at Geek’s Oasis, we have looked at many styles of jigsaw puzzles and if you feel that we have been taking it easy on you, well congratulations, you have just arrived at the next level where we are looking at some of the toughest jigsaw puzzles around!
One thing that these hard puzzles and a simple 100-piece cute puzzle of Grogu have in common is that they are fun! However, these puzzles are designed with being fiendishly difficult in mind so your mind is well and truly going to get a workout here. If you can complete one of these you very well could match wits with Yoda himself!
Thinking Really Hard To Come Up With An Epic List Of Hard Puzzles
To quote the great Macho Man Randy Savage, “thinking, thinking, thinking” was our train of thought as we put together this list of very challenging puzzles. There is no shortage of difficult puzzles in online stores.
However, we decided that it was one thing for a puzzle to be hard, we also wanted to make sure that it was fun as well and we feel that these puzzles we have selected for you walk that fine line between being challenging and fun.
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
You better call in Ethan Hunt as we are starting off this collection of hard puzzles with this awesome The Clearly Impossible 500 Pieces. The idea here is that what we have is pretty much a blank/clear jigsaw!
You only put it together by making sure the pieces fit, not by making an actual image! There are many false edges and ways that it fakes you out so this is one of the most challenging jigsaw puzzles ever created.
You can select what level of challenge you get to as it is available in 100, 200, 500, and even 1,000 pieces if you are really a glutton for punishment!
Good To Know
- Size: 11 x 19 inches
- Recommended Age: 15 years and up
- This is arguably the most difficult puzzle you can buy!
- Other variations: 100, 200, and even one with 1000 puzzle pieces!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
When you think of the most complicated puzzles, this Ponderium Gradient 1000 Pieces is usually what comes to mind. These jigsaw puzzles that are made of pieces that are all a similar color are super tricky and challenging.
Kind of like something they would make a Padawan do before they became a Jedi Master!
This one here is made up of 1,000 pieces and it is a very funky and bright kind of puzzle, the kind of puzzle that is going to be very challenging, but it is also the kind of puzzle that gets you in a zen-like state when you are working on it!
Good To Know
- Size: 27.5 x 19.6 inches
- Recommended Age: 12 years and up
- While this is very challenging, it also has a rather soothing effect to it as well.
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
We actually have a full post about these insanely hard Waldo puzzles, but today we picked this one with 3000 Waldos... Or hold on, it's actually just 3000 pieces!
Anyhow, no matter if you call him Waldo or Wally, this guy has been causing us trouble for years! This Aquarius Where's Waldo is a lot of fun and one of the more challenging puzzles you will ever see.
At 3,000 pieces you will certainly have a tough task ahead of you with this one! It is made up of several classic Where’s Waldo images that all merge together to make this very tricky!
Once you are complete, you can challenge yourself even further by trying to find this sneaky dude!
Good To Know
- Size: 32 x 45 inches
- Recommended Age: 14 years and up
- It is cool how it mixes some classic Where’s Waldo puzzles to make one giant puzzle.
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
Next up we have another real brain teaser for our list of the best hard puzzles. This Bgraamiens Twisted 3D Colorful Squares is one trippy image kind of like you are going through Hyper Space or that weird sequence from the old-school Dr. Who opening.
You may think that as we are dealing with different colored lines here this is one of the “easier” puzzles on this list. Ok, so it actually may be, but this is still one heck of a challenge and by the time you put in that last piece, you will feel like the smartest person alive!
Good To Know
- Size: 24 x 24 inches
- Recommended Age: 12 years and up
- While this is still super hard, it is probably the easiest of the puzzles on our list
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
“Space, The Final Frontier” How can you look at this Blue Kazoo Starfield Galaxy and not get major Captain Pickard vibes like you are sitting on the Enterprise with the whole galaxy in front of you?
Some of us in the Geek’s Oasis office got a real kick out of this one. What we like about this is that at 1000 pieces, this is certainly worthy of a spot on our hard puzzles list.
However, the space theme is really cool and it would look truly epic framed once you are done. Plus, this version we picked is awesome, but they have two other awesome space-themed puzzles in this series!
Good To Know
- Size: 20 x 30 inches
- Recommended Age: 13 years and up
- If you think space is cool, you will love the image this puzzle creates!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
We really wanted to have something from one of our favorite fandoms on this list and we felt that this Harry Potter Marauder's Map was one of the best hard puzzles around as it is not just “hard”, but also fun too.
If you love Harry Potter you will think this is awesome as it is just like the Marauder’s Map from the movie! However, as most of this is the same color and the map is made with black lines, it makes it a very challenging 1000-piece puzzle to put together!
Good To Know
- Size: 35 x 13 inches
- Recommended Age: 14 years and up
- How awesome would this puzzle look in a frame?
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
This shiny Spyglass Puzzles Gears Round puzzle caught our eye with the cool-looking steel gears, and it's not every day when you see these round puzzles anyway.
It's fascinating to see how those gears in different layers connect to each other. This is maybe one of the easier ones on our list, but certainly not an easy peasy!
Good To Know
- Size: 26.5 inches in diameter
- Recommended Age: 13 years and up
- If a regular 1000-piece puzzle fits your table, it might be because it's wide but not that high. Better measure your table to see that this 26.5-inch round puzzle fits it!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
Get ready for some real mind-bending challenge! This Torched Aztec Labyrinth Wooden Puzzle is pretty hard, but yet a blast to solve - just look at those cool pieces!
This puzzle is not for the faint of heart - with 100 odd-shaped pieces, it is sure to test your patience and problem-solving skills.
We guarantee it will be a fun (and frustrating) experience, and it's sure going to take you hours to complete!
Good To Know
- Size: 11.3 x 11.3 inches
- Made in the USA from precision-cut plywood
- Other variation: Medium hard with 50 pieces
FAQs For Hard And Challenging Puzzles
We know that some of you may be thinking “no way” when it comes to these very hard puzzles. Yet, we also know that a few of you may have some questions and we hope to answer a few of the more common questions right here.
How Hard Is Too Hard?
That really is the million-dollar question. We have all attempted to do that one puzzle that we went into with the best of intentions only to get so frustrated we turn into the Hulk, flip the table, and start Hulk Smashing everything in sight!
If you are someone that gets frustrated very easily with puzzles, we would suggest maybe trying one of the puzzles from one of the other puzzle articles we have here at Geek’s Oasis.
Or, think about picking a challenging puzzle that is about something you love such as Star Wars, LEGO, or whatever.
Is Patience Really A Virtue?
Look, we know that the point of a puzzle is to not just have fun, but also challenge you and us mentally and that is especially the theme of the hard puzzles we have looked at here today.
However, we will say that patience is really the key to putting together a puzzle like the ones we have looked at today.
Sure, it may take a good ten or more minutes to find that one piece's rightful place, but just think how fantastic that will feel once you finally slot it in! You will feel as good as Deadpool when the Chimichanga truck pulls up!
So How To Start With These Puzzles With Crazy Difficulty Levels?
Same way as always with puzzles, start with the edge pieces! Once those are done, you can get a picture of the size and shape of the puzzle and can start to work with the inner parts of the puzzle. What a great advice for a one-color puzzle...
Well, the rest depends on the puzzle. Some of these puzzles do have some sort of distinguishing factors on the puzzle pieces, so start with them.
Sort pieces by color, or try to find some lines or other shapes in the picture and pile such pieces together. Then work your way through those piles.
If it's a one-color puzzle though, it's going to be even harder. You need to sort the pieces by their shape. Good luck with that! Maybe an activity for a rainy day, and at least you'll get your brain engaged and a little mental workout for sure when doing that!
One Last Thought About Thought-Provoking, Challenging Puzzles!
We had so much fun here at the Geek’s Oasis office coming up with this list of hard puzzles for you today. We just want to say that if you do decide to take on the challenge of one of these, just make sure you are coming into this with the right kind of mindset.
Unless you are Lex Luthor's level of smart (and hopefully have none of his psychotic tendencies!) you will be taking a fair bit of time to put one of these together.
The best bit of advice we can give you is to just go with the flow and enjoy putting your challenging puzzle together, don’t try and rush it! It's gonna feel so satisfying when putting that final piece of a real challenging puzzle into its place.
Good luck!
