Easy as Pentomino Snake by Serkan Yürekli
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools using a composite mode where left click inside cell shades square, left click + drag draws line segment, right click inside cell adds dot, and right click on cell edge adds an x.)
Theme: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 91st puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.
Rules: Draw a snake (a 1-cell wide path) out of pentominoes that doesn’t touch itself, not even diagonally. The head and tail of the snake are given by circles. Pentominoes can be rotated/reflected, and can be used more than once. The letters outside the grid represent the first pentomino visible in the corresponding direction.
Answer String: Enter the number of cells used by each of the snake segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma. The example has the answer “211,231”.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other Snake puzzles.
Can someone tell me what the intended break-in was? Took me a long time to solve this puzzle and it felt like i was missing something..
I’m not sure if it was the intended break-in, ohg V oebxr va gelvat gb svther bhg jurer gur V va gur obggbz-evtug pbeare jnf ybpngrq naq jbexvat ebhaq sebz gurer.
Me too.
That’s how I started, too. I would also say this one involved a lot more “feel” than rigorous deduction. Which was actually a lot of fun, but I would recommend letting yourself play around with the puzzle rather than worrying that every step has to be fully justified. (Though I’d bet most people’s solving paths look very very similar)
I first broke in with n srj ryrzragnel qrqhpgvbaf urer naq gurer, yvxr gung V pna’g tb va gur evtugzbfg 4 pryyf va gur obggbz ebj. Gur ovt oernxva V fnj jnf jurer gur M va gur evtugzbfg pbyhza jrag. Gur frpbaq oernxva jnf jvgu gur obggbz ebj; Jvgu gur A, I naq gur M, gur V bayl unf n srj cbffvovyvgvrf, naq nyy bs gurz unir gb hfr gur fvkgu naq friragu pryyf va gung ebj.
After that, the puzzle falls apart completely.