Cross the Streams (LITS) by Grant Fikes
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a shading mode and a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)
Theme: Logical
Author/Opus: This is the 154th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.
Rules: Standard Cross the Streams rules. Also, the shaded region must be able to be split into tetrominoes to form a valid LITS solution (meaning all tetrominoes are connected but no two tetrominoes sharing an edge are the same shape, including rotations and reflections).
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments from left to right for the marked rows and from top to bottom for the marked columns in the two grids, going in order from A to B to C to D and separating each entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:45, Master = 7:30, Expert = 15:00.
Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.
Note: Follow this link for variations of Cross the Streams and this link for other classic Cross the Streams. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cross the Streams to get started on.
Spent a few minutes being very stuck because I hadn’t read the rules or title. After that it was still tricky, but reasonable. 15:58.
Let’s also throw in Grant’s bonus puzzle (the Nurikabe, not the Pentominous) at 2:50, and that brings this week’s total to 48:51. So that means:
$49 to the Ferguson Public Library,
$49 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and
$49 to the Eric Garner Family Support Fund.
Nicely done, Jonah! I took about 21 minutes on this one. (I stared at the final block of empty cells for quite some time thinking that there were multiple ways to complete the puzzle until I realized I had previously crossed out some clues that weren’t yet fully satisfied. Re-considering those, things finished nicely.)
The ending was tremendously difficult for an otherwise smooth flowing puzzle.50 min