Thursday, 16 May 2024

bakpao

You know that feeling when you go and write a puzzle in a genre you've never written before, end up using the wrong rules and accidentally invent a cool variant that then goes on to become popular? No? Me neither. @Prasanna16391, credited with inventing today's variant Nanro type, evidently does. Read more here: Discord message

Today's puzzle is a Nanro (Signpost)!

Rules: Place a number into some cells so that all cells with numbers form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 region is entirely numbered. Each region must contain at least one numbered cell, and every number in the region must be equal to how many numbered cells the region contains. A clue in a region represents how many numbered cells are in the region. Two cells containing the same number may not share a region border.

GAPP 101 🧐
When a region of size N+1 has a N clue in it (i.e. exactly one cell in it will be unused), you can often look for small sections of the region where using all cells in that section would create a 2x2, to limit down the position of the unused cell to that section. This then tells you all other cells in the region must be used by numbers.

Interface Note 💻
The puzzle can be solved using shading or numbers. When using shading, shade the cells with numbers in them, leave empty cells unshaded.

While this variant has never featured before, here is our previous classic Nanro:
Sep/23, Freddie: Archive: Thursday, 9 November 2023

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 3:00 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 6:00 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Nocturnal Nene 🐦!

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/28pk6rek
Main puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/23fvecol