Friday, 7 February 2025

Menderbug

Round 1 of Puzzle Ramayan has begun! You can give it a go any time until the 13th to claim your bonus otter 🦦. Walker covered Sus-Shikaku a few days ago, so here's the other variant from the contest: Yajilin (Clue Pool)

Rules: Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and draw a non-intersecting loop through the centres of all the remaining empty cells. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells in a straight line in each of the four cardinal directions. It is up to the solver to determine which number corresponds to which direction.

A small GAPP 101 that you probably don't need if you've solved Yajilin before: If a cell is adjacent to only two other empty cells (i.e. it's a corner or a corridor), then you can put a dot in both of its neighbours, because shading one of them would create a dead end for the loop.

Score a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 2:15 or less!
Collect a Quick Crab 🦀 by completing the puzzle in 4:30 or less!
Finish the puzzle in your own time to become the proud owner of an Omnidirectional Oriole 🐦!

Example (Penpa+), adapted from the PR instruction booklet: https://tinyurl.com/2yk6k5zm
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/28tp97jr