Congratulations to @Sam Cappleman-Lynes, @clover, @NotJeff, @MikoKisai, and @Dexter345 for correctly guessing today’s genre and earning a bonus otter! 🦦 Keep guessing for more chances to earn an otter!

Another GAPP, another hiking theme! 🏔️ Today, I’m hiking the Thousand Steps Trail in Pennsylvania. This trail has a famous 1036-step Supersized Stostone staircase, and hikers from all around come to enjoy the climb and the view from the top. But today, I’m looking for something else: a geocache, a box hidden as part of a GPS treasure hunting game, hidden somewhere along the steps. Up and down and up and down… where could it be… why is there no stairs emoji...

Rules: Shade a single group of orthogonally connected cells in each region. A shaded cell in one region cannot share an edge orthogonally with a shaded cell in a different region. Regions with numbers must contain the indicated amount of shaded cells. If all of the shaded groups were to fall straight down without changing shape, they must completely fill the bottom half of the grid.

Interface Note: You can press the Drop blocks button below the grid to visualize how the current blocks in the grid will drop!

Here’s a GAPP 101: Each column must have 8 shaded cells. While solving, look for columns where all remaining cells need to be shaded.

Try past GAPP Stostones:
Tyrgannus: Discord message
bakpao: Archive: Monday, 10 June 2024

Example (puzzlink), by Tyrgannus: https://tinyurl.com/25z45kwx

Solve in 8:00 or under for a Speedy Sloth! 🦥
Complete in 16:00 or under for a Quick Crab! 🦀
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will earn a Geo Cacholote! 🐦

Puzzle (puzzlink): https://tinyurl.com/bdftc7hv

Mind the GAPP Vol. 33

Double ping! This edition of Mind the GAPP has 5 bonus puzzles and some additional stats for GAPP 1000! That's an exclamation mark, not a factorial. Do not interpret it as a factorial. Anyone caught interpreting it as a factorial will be subject to $1 quintillion fine.