Nurikabe by Tapio Saarinen
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Theme: Big Twister
Author/Opus: This is the 4th puzzle from guest contributor Tapio Saarinen. You can find more of his puzzles on Perplexible.
Rules: Standard Nurikabe rules.
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the black segments (the unnumbered, connected “ocean”) from left to right for the marked rows. Separate each row’s entry from the next with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 12:00, Master = 21:00, Expert = 42:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is available here.
Note: Follow this link for other classic Nurikabe. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Nurikabes to get started on.
This one was very hard. Looking back at it, I may have made an assumption that helped me solve it quicker than I should have.
This was definitely one where I basically sketched out the solution and than made a few adjustments, so I think solving it by “well, it has to go sort of like this” is expected. Easier to solve than to actually prove uniqueness, I’d say.
14:42.
I took about five minutes struggling because I assumed it’s the 12 and not the 13 that goes to top-left corner. Afterwards, there are quite a few points of bifurcation, but they aren’t too long. There are a few points where intuition is required too. But still, impressive puzzle.
The hardest part for me was (rot13) jurgure gur bprna pbaarpgvba jrag nobir be orybj gur ybjrfg ahzore gjryir.
Agreed.
I considered that the trickiest part to handle in my “talkthrough” of the puzzle as well. I could manage it with some careful counting, but it is hardly an instant deduction.
Very challenging. I was surprised at how many different ways I found to fall one square short in the lower right.
Finally. I’m well over a month behind now, but I finally put this one to bed. Not sure I’m ever going to catch up now.