Monday, 26 August 2024

Menderbug

I'm afraid no one earned a bonus otter today. Maybe we went a little too far today, but we wanted some challenging picks and we know you folks are smart. Initially, I was going to do Compass for this, but then worried it might be too easy. Oh well, better luck tomorrow!

Today we've got A38, a genre I've been wanting to feature on GAPP for a while. The genre is named after a fantastic scene from The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (the only Asterix film until 2018 with an original screenplay and not adapted from a comic book).

Rules:
- Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centres of all cells without number clues and define its direction of travel.
- The black circle is considered the start (and end) of the loop.
- A traveller moves along the loop. In order to visit a shaded cell, they must first obtain a Permit A38 in a cell which is orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to a number clue.
- A number clue N indicates that the traveller acquires a Permit A38 in the Nth neighbouring cell that the loop visits.
- The traveller cannot hold more than one Permit A38 at a time, and visiting a shaded cell uses up the permit. Hence, the traveller must alternate between obtaining and spending permits.
- At the start of the loop, the traveller holds no permit.

Interface note: You only need to draw the loop, but I've included some auxiliary notation in the example solution to hopefully clarify the rules a bit.

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 Secretarybird 🐦!

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/2dnzxvb4
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/29dv3a2w