Monday, 27 April 2026

bakpao

It's been a while since I last featured a Nikoli omopa genre. Puzzle Communication volume 193, released at the beginning of the year, unfortunately did not contain any new genres that seemed particularly exciting to me, so I was hopeful that the brand new volume 194 would. At first glance it didn't seem like it, and my first thought when I saw today's genre was that it seemed a bit plain and uninteresting. As I spent some time with it though, I think it managed to change my mind - it is basic, but surprisingly fun! What do you think?

Today's GAPP is an L-Ring!

Rules: Draw a non-intersecting loop that moves orthogonally through the centres of some cells. The loop must visit all cells with arrows. The loop must turn in a cell with an arrow, and exit the cell in the direction indicated by the arrow. The length of a loop segment exiting from an arrow must be exactly one cell longer than the segment coming into the same arrow.

Note that arrows do not indicate directionality of the loop! (See for example the R3C1 and R5C4 arrows in the example solution)

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving in 2:00 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving in 4:00 or less!
All solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with an Unexpected Uguisu 🐦!

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/3x4b75be
Main (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/386mswuj