Thursday, 9 January 2025

Freddie Hand

We haven't had a genre with the Myopia modifier in a while. So here's a Star Battle (Myopia). Not to be confused with Myopia (Star Battle).

If you're myopic (or just squint really hard), the pattern of clues might look like a subset of Orion.

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. Clued cells cannot contain stars, and contain arrows indicating all of the orthogonal directions which tie for having a star appearing closest to the clued cell. At least one star must appear in the direction of an arrow.

⚠️Warning ⚠️ As with other Myopia variants, the clues have a negative constraint - if a direction does not have an arrow, then the first star in that direction cannot be (tied for) closest to the clue.

A little GAPP 101: Watch out for rows/columns with very little room for stars as well as regions!

The previous non-variant Star Battle in GAPP, by Menderbug, can be found here: Archive: Monday, 22 April 2024

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 4:00 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 8:00 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Solar Solomons Monarch 🐦

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/22h72cco
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/2yx4t7cn