This is a Melon puzzle. (3 – Tapa)
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the composite Yajilin mode where left click marks cells, right click marks dots in cells or X’s on edges, left click+drag draws lines.)
Theme: Logical
Rules: Standard Tapa rules.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the shaded segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 6:00, Expert = 12:00
Solution: PDF
8:34. The word “squeeze” came to mind a lot during this puzzle.
Hey awesome puzzle and nice trick.
But fortunately got the trick immediately and then it was in flow. Well it was shocking to see gm time as i took approx less than 3 min 🙂
(Well this will be the only case for such shocks :p)
Congrats on the good solve of this puzzle.
While I test-solved both Monday’s and Wednesday’s puzzles in about the same time (2’6″ on Monday, 2’0″ on Wednesday), most of our testers had much higher times for this one. So, to reflect the difficulty, I decided to use a higher GM time than strictly the fastest solve. No magic formula is going to be perfect, but we try our best.
As you noted, this puzzle in particular has a single idea where your solve will be far faster if you catch it early. It’s not feasible to give a set of benchmark times that can suit every solver for puzzles like this, but what’s in the post will probably work for most.
I didn’t time myself, but I’d estimate I did about 3:30. Then I checked the target times. With my solving speed, it’s not often that I get so close to Grandmaster (or even Master).
Nice puzzle, loved the trick and also the solve at the ends of the shape, was suprised how it resolved itself!
This is one of those tapas where I find connectivity taking me through and I am glad I saw that(trick) early into the solve.
I get that this puzzle is very connectivity constraint,
but nevertheless it took me a while to get to the solution.
I guess I’ve started in the wrong place, maybe I’ve should have started by proving certain routes (passing between certain clues without forcing 3s) were not possible.
I’d love to see a walkthrough for this one !