Monday, 10 July 2023

Menderbug

Walkthrough for yesterday's Guide Arrow (Uso-One): https://youtu.be/bIX8RRKZbFc

Today's genre, Equal Measures, is fresh out of the oven and was created just a couple of weeks ago by Hempuli (of Baba Is You fame). The visual theme of this puzzle was heavily inspired by a Persistence of Memory puzzle from this year's Logic Masters which, I believe, was constructed by @Jonas.

Rules: Shade some cells to form a non-intersecting loop which does not touch itself, not even diagonally. Exactly half the cells in each cage are shaded.

(Note: The full rules also account for cages with an odd number of cells, but since I'm not making use of that, I've simplified the rules a bit for this GAPP entry.)

GAPP 101: So-called "snake loops" like this one are very constrained, especially at the grid boundary. Each time the loop visits the edge of the grid it has to stay there for at least three cells. It's also often worth checking if shading a corner would lead to any quick contradictions (this also includes shading cells which already have two unshaded neighbours). You also can't ever have a 2x2 checkerboard of shaded and unshaded cells, as that would be the snake touching itself diagonally.

Score a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 2:30 or less!
Collect a Quick Crab 🦀 by completing the puzzle in 4:30 or less!
Finish the puzzle in your own time to become the proud owner of a Loopy Snake Eagle 🐦!

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/23abojqd
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/2cxzzo2w