Saturday, 29 January 2022

Freddie Hand

To kick things off, I'd like to second Tyrgannus's recommendation of PANFOPCWHTTAPA 2, the second in a series of pencil puzzle contests designed to be your first competitive experience. See this post - https://discord.com/channels/709370620642852885/723891943284670484/935167004216803388 - for further details.

It's that time of the quarter-month again. That's right, it's time for The Guardian Prize Crossword!!!! SUPERSIZED SATURDAY! But for this puzzle, I haven't given you any cryptic clues, or even shaded cells! 😖 To make things easier, you only need to identify the shaded cells to claim the prize of a stuffed animal. Whether you then fill the grid with words is entirely your "Ruling is in code, strangely" (8)

Today's puzzle is a Tasquare!

Rules: Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clued cells cannot be shaded, and represent the total size of the shaded squares that share an edge with the clue. If a clue has no number, it must share an edge with at least one shaded square.

Try an example here (puzzlink): https://tinyurl.com/2s4baa4d

OR* try the previous instalment of this genre by shye: Archive: Thursday, 28 October 2021

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 3:15 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 7:00 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Quadrilateral Quailfinch 🐦

Pitch your wits against the main puzzle here (puzzlink): https://tinyurl.com/4vdabv2b

*logical OR