Probably the most interesting 17x17 there's been on puzzlemix - usually (I must admit) the 17x17 ones of these are just large but not that interesting. This one is full of different types of logical deduction, however!
Posted 21st Jun 2020 at 09:35
JoergWausW Daily subscriber Best completion time: 12:57Time on first attempt: 20:46Used 'show invalid'
At the end (last ~25 numbers) I used trial and error... probably there's a logical deduction I don't know.
Posted 22nd Jun 2020 at 07:37 Last edited by winterer 22nd Jun 2020 at 13:26
winterer Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: ModerateBest completion time: 2:42Time on first attempt: 17:33Used 'auto remove'
This puzzle is beautiful. It's worthwhile to go through with "show eliminated" on, to see how it can be solved by logical deduction only.
The crux is the top left corner. There's a cluster of cells with the same three numbers. Shading one of them incorrectly would lead to two closed-off areas. Deducing which one it is requires looking ahead a few steps. "Show eliminated" helps. If you use the right colour, you don't get much farther, but this is crucial.
Next there's a group "XYXY" on the right. This is easy, but you can deduce a lot from there.
Finally, once you shaded everything that you can deduce immediately from the previous step, there is a cell near the top edge where shading it wrongly leads almost immediately to two closed-off areas.
The rest follows.
Posted 22nd Jun 2020 at 20:28
JoergWausW Daily subscriber Best completion time: 12:57Time on first attempt: 20:46Used 'show invalid'
That pretty much describes what I did - no immediate step but planning ahead, looking for enclosed areas. It's crucial what you try first...
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Last edited by winterer 22nd Jun 2020 at 13:26
The crux is the top left corner. There's a cluster of cells with the same three numbers. Shading one of them incorrectly would lead to two closed-off areas. Deducing which one it is requires looking ahead a few steps. "Show eliminated" helps. If you use the right colour, you don't get much farther, but this is crucial.
Next there's a group "XYXY" on the right. This is easy, but you can deduce a lot from there.
Finally, once you shaded everything that you can deduce immediately from the previous step, there is a cell near the top edge where shading it wrongly leads almost immediately to two closed-off areas.
The rest follows.
It's crucial what you try first...
You can however view other players' statistics and comments in the tables above.