Castle Wall Delta #1 (10x10)
(Published on 22. May 2021, 17:38 by Jesper)
Rules
Draw a single closed loop (without intersections or crossings) passing through some empty cells in the grid.
The loop shall consist of horizontal and vertical segments connecting the centers of cells.
Cells that are colored and/or have heavy borders cannot be part of the loop:
- Black cells must be outside the loop
- White cells with heavy borders must be inside the loop
- Grey cells may be inside or outside the loop
The loop has an orientation (to be determined during the solve).
A number in a clue cell indicates the total number of steps made towards that cell minus the total number of steps made away from the cell, when completing a lap of the loop. Only steps within the row or column of the clue cell count.
Small general hint for directional single loops (select area in brackets to view):
[The loop cannot travel clockwise through some cells on the perimeter of the grid and counter-clockwise through others (if it did, it would be impossible to close the loop)]
Example:
The puzzle follows:
Penpa+: Castle Wall Delta #1 (10x10)
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Solution code: For every row (from top to bottom), the number of turns of the loop
Comments
on 10. September 2024, 00:23 by Samish
Great introduction and amazing setup! Looking forward for #2
on 15. May 2024, 14:50 by Niverio
Very nice :) Not too difficult if you are a madman like me and solved #2 first before doing this one XD
on 10. December 2023, 16:47 by Piatato
Awesome puzzle, I'm very happy finally being able to write this one off the list, as I've been bamboozled by this one for a very long time. In the end I think it is only 3/5, but directional loop really is something quite special! Looking forward to struggling with the next one.
on 30. September 2023, 02:20 by wisty
Brilliant! Easy to make mistakes at first with such a new ruleset, but a very clean and visible solve path helps a lot in minimizing the trouble that can cause.
on 29. September 2023, 01:44 by zzw
Amazing puzzle, tons of fun! Really creative and minimalistic. The break-in was a very interesting insight leading to a smooth mid-solve, and I thought I'd complete it under an hour, but then it seemed that I broke it, spending quite a while agonizing over every step I'd taken. But turns out I didn't break it after all... Anyways, super cool genre you've created here, I'm already getting ideas for variations on this.
on 23. September 2023, 12:28 by The Book Wyrm
That was rather tough, but very fun. An interesting ruleset, and a great puzzle.
on 24. August 2023, 07:24 by Christounet
Finally understood the way to approach this puzzle after looking at it several times in the past months ! Now onto #2, which is apparently quite a bigger challenge...
on 4. March 2023, 01:54 by filuta
great puzzle! I found it very useful to actually put the arrows on the loop since I was constantly making counting errors. otherwise surprisingly approachable.
on 15. January 2023, 01:15 by Myxo
Lovely!
on 27. December 2022, 20:59 by Agent
Very nice minimalistic puzzle, and very inventive ruleset too! The logic doesn't resemble anything I saw before, it felt very satisfying to slowly discover the implications of the rules. I'm really looking forward, and also a bit terrified, to attempt the #2.
on 14. October 2021, 14:37 by Phistomefel
There are really a lot of tricks to discover in this puzzle which makes it a delightful journey. Thank you, Jesper!
on 10. September 2021, 00:53 by Vebby
Challenging variant but features some delightful logic! Very satisfying to solve. Bracing myself for puzzle #2 :)
on 30. July 2021, 22:16 by JayForty
Very nice puzzle! After solving Castle Wall Delta #2 I just had to try this one. I was surprised how different the solve was. There were some techniques in this one that I never used in #2 and even more so the other way around. This one was also a lot more approachable, I didn't even have to use another software to annotate the grid :D
A very enjoyable solve to this brilliant puzzle!
on 4. June 2021, 07:05 by Mark Sweep
What a superb idea. For a week or so, I looked at it in confusion, but when I finally understood how to approach it, the solve was actually quite smooth. Still quite tricky to manage everything until the end.
EDIT @Mark Sweep: Thanks, Mark! Great to hear that you gave it another look and were able to discover the way to approach these puzzles :)
on 28. May 2021, 20:52 by Jesper
Added small general hint about directional loops
on 25. May 2021, 08:24 by PixelPlucker
Whew... working out a new variant from first principles is always challenging for me, but I'm glad I persevered! Thanks for this fun challenge :)
on 23. May 2021, 13:51 by xiaofeixia
what a beautiful puzzle
on 22. May 2021, 23:30 by emmettcito
That is some bizarre logic! Very nice and creative.
