This is a Melon puzzle. (1 – Tapa)
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)
Theme: MM
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 2:45, Expert = 5:30
Solution: PDF
Editor’s Note: It is with great pleasure that we add Palmer Mebane to our list of Contributing Puzzlemasters this week with a set of rather interesting and challenging puzzles. One of the top puzzle solvers in the world (the current US Puzzle Champion and a past World Puzzle Champion), Palmer is also a phenomenal puzzle designer as anyone who has followed his puzzles in the past should know.
Bah, missed out on Master time by 5 seconds. Glad to see Palmer enter the fold.
Very nice puzzle, doubly so as it had me briefly fooled into thinking it was unsolvable! Welcome Palmer; I’ve massively missed Melon’s marvelous mindbenders!
Was it related to the 21 above the 51? The puzzle was unsolvable to me for more than a brief time…
Orthogonally adjacent Tapa clues are my nemesis as well. Always have to double check everything I do around those.
Welcome Palmer! A great start.
I suspect if you’d been a test-solver for this one there’d be a Grandmaster time more like 1:30.
1:41 on paint
I like how the path is “buried” at the bottom and had to resurface from the bottom left.