Heavy Dots by Prasanna Seshadri
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools in a composite mode for line/edge drawing.)
Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 22nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.
Rules: Draw vertical/horizontal lines between dots to divide the grid into regions. A region may contain at most one number, equal to the area of the region. No region may cover a 2×2 area. Some dots are “heavy” and have 3 or 4 lines connected to them. Black circles indicate heavy dots with exactly three lines; white circles indicate heavy dots with four lines. Not all heavy dots are given, but there can be no heavy dots orthogonally adjacent to the indicated ones. In other words, there may be only 2 lines from any unmarked dot adjacent to a white/black circle (these dots are gray in the example).
Answer String: Enter the length of groups of white cells in the same area in the marked rows. For this example, the answer is “11212, 1132”
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:30, Master = 14:00, Expert = 28:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.
Note: This is a new puzzle style, so it is recommended to carefully review and solve the example first to get used to the thinking and all the rules.