Tapa-Like Loop by Prasanna Seshadri
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s on edges)
Theme: Odd One Out
Author/Opus: This is the 45th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.
Rules: In this variation of Tapa, the wall is in the form of a single non-intersecting loop. Clues inside the grid represent the number of neighboring cells visited by the loop; if there is more than one number in a cell, each number should be represented with a separate loop segment. There is no 2×2 rule of Tapa in this puzzle. This example image should help:
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of the horizontal loop segments from left to right in the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. For the example, this would be “11,12”.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.
Note: Follow this link for other Tapa-Like Loop puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on.
That was pretty tough for me, although the solving path in retrospect is something I think I could learn to do pretty quickly if I had a deeper feel for the genre. I’d be curious to know if the test solvers were widely varied on this one.
I ended up having to bifurcate slightly to spot the main break-in.
Oh my… i couldn’t find the intended path at all. After spotting some deductions in the corners i had to bifurcate like crazy, eventually randomly stumbling onto a solution. Knowing how the solution looked i went back to make some educated guesses to reach contradicions, which i eventually found, but only after a huge huge bifurcation.. don’t know what i missed, too bad that there is no walkthrough for this one.
This was a very tough one. However, thanks to the solution video, there are many things that I learned that will help me to solve these types of puzzles.