Saturday, 10 February 2024

Menderbug

Walkthrough for yesterday's Ice Walk: https://youtu.be/1PQMTdnQxno

Bee-doo-bee-doo-... what's that? Oh, it's the Negative Constraint Alert. Today's Supersized Saturday features a Nurimisaki. This genre takes some getting used to, so if you've never done one before, I would strongly recommend warming up with one of the previous regular-sized GAPP appearances:

- Archive: Sunday, 17 July 2022 by Shye
- Archive: Friday, 27 October 2023 by Shye

Rules: Shade some cells so that the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded or unshaded. Circles mark every instance of a cell which is unshaded and orthogonally adjacent to exactly one other unshaded cell. If a circle contains a number, it indicates how many cells are in the straight line of unshaded cells coming out of the cell with the circle, including itself. (This may include another circle at the other end of this straight line.)

Others on the team suggested I add a little GAPP 101, but I think you'll do fine without it. It's a specific deduction that is only really required once and I think it's fairly well telegraphed. So I would recommend you only click the spoiler if you actually get stuck towards the end of the puzzle: The unshaded cells cannot connect through circle clues.

Score a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 4:00 or less!
Collect a Quick Crab 🦀 by completing the puzzle in 8:00 or less!
Finish the puzzle in your own time to become the proud owner of Cul-de-sac Red Kingfisher 🐦!

Example (puzz.link) by Shye: https://tinyurl.com/yj9h38nf
Puzzle, Landscape (puzz.link): http://tinyurl.com/yh3remu5
Puzzle, Portrait (puzz.link): http://tinyurl.com/5fd9edxd