Thursday, 30 June 2022

Freddie Hand

I think it's time we took a stroll down letter frequency lane. Today's puzzle, an Onsen-Meguri (or Onsen), is only the second single-word genre in GAPP to start with an O (can you name the first)? It may be even more surprising that only one single-word genre starts with an E. And in fact, no genres at all starting with Z! Perhaps an issue which deserves to be remedied?

And for an extra challenge, what is the initial letter that appears the second most frequently? (Now counting multiple word genres + duplicates). The answer may surprise you!

Rules: For each circle in the grid, draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some cells which passes through that circle. Loops may not overlap themselves or each other. A loop may visit any region at most once, and every region must be visited by at least one loop. Each loop must occupy an equal number of cells in each region that it visits. A number in a circle indicates how many cells that is per region for its loop.

Notes
- The rule in bold is not demonstrated in the example, so pay special attention to this.
- To keep the puzzle fairly transparent, there are no unnumbered circles in the example or GAPP. But note that these can exist, and can represent any positive integer.

Example (Puzz.link, slightly adapted from puzz.link example): https://tinyurl.com/5vksz9r3

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 2:15 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 5:30 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Spring Snowcap 🐦

Puzzle (Puzz.link): https://tinyurl.com/t4kyf759