Monday, 22 April 2024

Menderbug

I'm trying to have more revisits of classics in my GAPP schedule, and it turns out we haven't had a (non-variant) Star Battle in over a year! Time to fix that.

Rules: Place stars into some cells such that each row, column, and outlined region contains exactly N stars. The value of N is given outside the grid. Stars may not touch one another, not even diagonally. (Internal region borders are purely for theming purposes.)

Notation tip: You can right-click an edge or vertex to place a dot, to remind yourself that the surrounding 1x2 or 2x2 must contain a star. On mobile, you'll have to switch to the "Dots" input mode to place these. puzz.link will automatically remove the dot for you when you place a star next to it.

And a little GAPP 101: If you know that there's a star in one of two adjacent cells, you get up to four dashes in neighbouring cells, because a star there would prevent both of your options.

Score a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 2:30 or less!
Collect a Quick Crab 🦀 by completing the puzzle in 5:00 or less!
Finish the puzzle in your own time to become the proud owner of a Vanilla Star Finch 🐦!

Example (puzz.link) by clover: https://tinyurl.com/3fsh6amy
Puzzle (puzz.link): https://tinyurl.com/f6bkhjrt