Litro by John Bulten
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use the tab key to alternate between shading and number entry modes)
Theme: Pocket Puzzle
Author/Opus: This is the 5th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster John Bulten.
Rules: Variation of standard Nanro rules. Besides the cells numbered 4, identical numbers in differing regions cannot touch along common borders. All “4” clues have been replaced by tetromino letters, and must be connected to form a valid LITS solution (that is, identical shapes cannot touch along common borders). In other words: the final solution, including all numbered cells and tetrominoes, is a valid Nanro solution, and just the regions with tetrominoes form a valid LITS solution.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the segments labeled with characters from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. (Characters include both numbers and letters.) Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 5:30, Expert = 11:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Click here for other Nanro puzzles and LITS puzzles.
I am not quite sure if I understand the rules.Are there 2 seperate puzzles within the same puzzle?
Do all the regions contain numbers which may vary from 1-N as well as any of the shapes L,I,T or S
Not sure this will help but let me try.
All regions contain numbers as usual. When that Nanro number is 4 (and only when that number is 4) you should enter the number as an L, I, T, or S and be sure it is part of an L, I, T, or S tetromino. See that the given clues already include such 4=L, 4=I, 4=T, and 4=S squares.
I think the Nanro use is a bit too low in this one. All unclued Nanro regions went to 1. I think on a larger size or with a smaller LITS wall, it could be more influential and could have unclued regions go to other numbers as well.
“Besides the cells numbered 4”.Does it mean other than the cells numbered 4??
Yeah, the idea is that this is exactly like a normal nanro with two additional constraints. First, in any region that has 4 blocks, they have to be connected and be in an L, I, T, or S shape. Second, all of the L, I, T, and S groups have to be directly connected to each other, so that even if you ignore all of the regions with more or less than 4 blocks, everything is still connected.
Also, great puzzle John! It reminds me of the fillomino/LITS puzzles, but it’s nice to see this variant play out in a pretty different style of puzzle.
That was a really cool puzzle! The logical theme was very nice and i didn’t expect it when reading the rules 🙂 i think the two types fit together really well! The only thing i don’t get is why it’s named pocket puzzle… Can somebody explain?
Strange, I solved it only as a shading puzzle, and focusing quasi only on LITS, didn’t really feel like a variation.
But I appreciated the puzzle anyway.
And I don’t understand the theme neither.
I really liked this puzzle, V sbhaq vg hfrshy gb guvax bs gur anaeb nf na naark gb gur YVGF chmmyr, jvgu gur YVGF tvivat zbfg bs gur cngu naq gur anaeb sbepvat havdhrarff.
I was totally stumped until I realized that there must be a single connected group of all the LITS regions. Ignoring the other groups and concentrating on the LITS regions took this from “I have no idea” to “This is very solvable”.
I had a similar misunderstanding of the rules. I read “must be connected” as meaning that the tetrominoes could be connected through Nanro numbers. Of course it was impossible to make much progress that way, so I determined that the LITS pieces must all be connected themselves.
Once I had a correct understanding of the rules, things progressed nicely, and I enjoyed the LITS portion. The Nanro part felt almost like an efterthought, with most clues working only to determine their own region, and not much Nanro connectivity to consider. So this was fun for an early-in-the-week puzzle, but it would have been even more interesting if there had been some back-and-forth between LITS and Nanro while determining connectivity for the solution.
19:23
This is indeed inspired by LITS Fillomino, but when I went with the pocket theme (as in “nineball”) and the 11x grid I found myself underusing the Nanro as Para observed, so I hope for another Litro to develop with more Nanro logic.