Fillomino (Cipher) by Palmer Mebane
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a number entry mode.)
Theme: C Major
Author/Opus: This is the 30th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Palmer Mebane.
Rules: Standard Fillomino rules. Also, each musical note represents a different positive integer.
Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows/columns, enter the area of the polyomino it belongs to. Enter just the last digit for any two-digit number. Start with the 2nd row, followed by a comma, followed by the 7th row. (For this puzzle, use the integer values of the area, not the encoded letters.)
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:00, Master = 12:30, Expert = 25:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other classic Fillomino and this link for more variations on Fillomino puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Fillomino puzzles to get started on.
What a fabulous puzzle. I loved everything about this. It was so satisfying to progress from “this seems impossibly hard”, to “of course I know what to do”, and then steady progress to a fun ending.
I did botch the puzzle in my first attempt and had to restart. On my second try, with the breakin already determined (which probably took me 20 minutes before I struck on it the first time), I solved the rest in 9:45.
I wish I hadn’t made that mistake so I would know how fast I could have solved this in one attempt.
Brilliantly executed. (Yesterday’s quite different challenge was harder, but such are calendar exigencies.) Today I was able to spot the paths quickly; this is a standout for what a ciphillomino should be, in part because it’s very straightforward once you get oriented, allowing people to get used to the type. Grant’s blog has excellent examples that are a notch and a half harder but, here, theme and presentation and logic and uniqueness all come together beautifully.
Are you kidding? This took me a long time to solve, well over ten minutes. . I don’t recall the Cipher Fillominos on my blog being half as hard as this one. *browses* The hardest one from my blog is probably Monday Mutant 83.
Definitely under eight minutes here, including uniqueness proof. Your #83 had a great ending but was difficult due to not being able to make sufficiently narrow assignments fast enough; http://mathgrant.blogspot.com/2011/11/monday-mutant-104-polyominous-cipher.html was another hard one (I loved both).
I’ve missed Palmer and he and Tapio can compose much harder work, but here he wanted there to be a clear path once you’re oriented, and sometimes the path just resonates immediately with the solver. Of course I think I’ve heard you speak of fillomino in such terms as that different paths (like the one ending F# and C#) would resonate better with you. 🙂
23:06.Tough one.
05:23. Welcome back Palmer.
Compared to usual Palmer’s difficult puzzles, this one lands on the easier side, but still an impressive construction nevertheless. Especially the ending with F# and C#.
I totally agree with Carl’s satisfying feeling to progress from “this seems impossibly hard”, to “of course I know what to do” ! This was fun indeed !
Even the F#/C# ending had me puzzled for a while, thinking for a minute that I failed at allocating the final cell…
Exactly! I was also stumped at the F#/C# ending for God knows how long! Pretty satisfying puzzle though.
A classic.
I have no idea how to get started on this one. Any hints?
There’s a natural way to get started.
Nice 😉
Wow, that was a beautiful puzzle! Loved the starting logic.