Tapa (Easy as) by Serkan Yürekli
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode, a number entry mode for placing Tapa clues, 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: Clue Symmetry and Logic
Author/Opus: This is the 275th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Serkan Yürekli.
Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Additionally, the numbers outside the grid indicate the first clue cell seen from the corresponding direction.
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 = 9:30, Master = 14:30, Expert = 29:00
Solution: PDF; a solution video is also available here.
Note: Follow this link for other Tapa variations and this link for classic Tapa. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Tapa puzzles to get started on. More Tapa puzzles can be found in The Art of Puzzles, in Tapa and Variations, and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles, all by Serkan Yürekli.
The rules confused me here — I originally thought that, as with other “Easy as” puzzles, there would be other clue cells that are not represented by any of the outside cells. This would make the puzzle non-unique, as you could add a bunch of different clues in some of the central blank squares and it would still be a “correct” answer according to the rules. So I figured that I had read it wrong and that _all_ blank cells were considered clue cells — but that quickly broke down as well.
It wasn’t until later that I realized that only the tapa structure needs to be unique for this to work, not the specific arrangement of clue cells, even though the rules never made that clear.
So I would have written this as “Standard Tapa rules, except that the clue cells are missing. The numbers outside the grid indicate the first missing clue cell seen from the corresponding direction. All missing clue cells are represented by at least one of the outside cells.
Thanks for this comment. I also struggled with the rules and this helped a lot. The puzzle still took forever, mind you, but at least I knew what I was trying to do.
Ah, this puzzle was a delight. I quite did like the leeway of the outside clue not needing to be the first non-shaded cell.
wowzers, that took forever 🙂
Hard puzzle and a heavy dislike for this.Took too much effort to complete.
I still don’t get the rules. If numbers outside the grid indicate the first clue cell seen from the corresponding direction, then what is the clue? And what about cells outside the grid with more than one number?