Half Life (Yin Yang Deconstruction)
(Published on 30. August 2022, 09:00 by Agent)
Here's another experiment with Yin Yang hybrids. This is actually the first Yin Yang puzzle I attempted to create, but it broke several times. I finally found a grid that works. This will likely be a relatively long solve - there's a large number of non-trivial steps, but I don't think any particular deduction is extremely hard. I hope you will enjoy!
Thanks to Jesper's Yin Yang Chaos Construction for the inspiration.
Rules
- Normal Yin Yang rules apply. That is, shade some cells in the grid such that all shaded cells are connected and all unshaded cells are connected. No 2x2 box may be fully shaded or fully unshaded.
- Unshaded cells must be divided into regions of 7 orthogonally connected cells that contain the digits 1 to 7 once each. Digits cannot repeat in any row or column. Shaded cells do not contain digits.
- A digit in a clued cell indicates the total number of unshaded cells (excluding itself) that appear in the indicated directions combined. Clued cells must be unshaded.
Puzzle link
Have fun solving!
Solution code: Row 1 (left to right) then row 10 (left to right). Use X for empty cells. 22 characters in total.
Comments
on 1. March 2024, 21:04 by Piatato
Indeed very nice and smooth!
on 1. March 2024, 20:20 by Myxo
Super smooth puzzle!
on 12. January 2024, 16:09 by wullemuus
Phew!
What a brilliant construction! Took me a lifetime to realize that every unshaded cell is in a region (that would have speeded up everything quite a lot ...). The dependance of outer and inner cells is remarkable and helps o lot. Also I liked the role of the regions in the second half. Very well done!
on 10. November 2023, 19:27 by Snookerfan
Magnificent! The Yin Yang shading was very interesting and hard here and there, but very rewarding and fun. Thank you
on 12. May 2023, 14:47 by StephenR
Super stuff, thanks. Probably the hardest Yin-Yang I have tried. I very much liked the way that at a certain point the geometry of the regions kicked in and that in turn helped with the Yin-Yang.
on 9. January 2023, 08:13 by Xendari
That was a really nice deconstruction! The YY logic in particular was very elegant. Thank you for setting and sharing :)
-- Thank you @Xendari!
on 16. September 2022, 05:22 by thoughtbyte
That was quite a challenge, and a beautiful satisfying solve. Thanks!
-- Thank you @thoughtbyte, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
on 1. September 2022, 19:58 by Niverio
Very very fun, brutal opening leading to a flowy solve in the end :D
-- Thanks @Niverio for the live solve! It was a pleasure to watch.
on 31. August 2022, 21:58 by Samish
Exceptional puzzle ! And very hard for me, it challenged my scanning abilities quite a lot and I struggled to find the easiest path. Can't wait for the next of the series
-- Thank you @Samish, this puzzle is indeed quite challenging but I'm glad that you were able to solve it. There will be more Yin Yang hybrids coming :-)
on 31. August 2022, 16:58 by Christounet
Fantastic puzzle ! Loved the interaction between the rules and the implication of the region size on the yin yang construction. Thanks++
Thank you @Christounet! Glad to hear that you enjoyed how the combination of rules worked out.
on 31. August 2022, 01:10 by ONeill
Amazing puzzle.
-- Thank you @ONeill!
on 30. August 2022, 22:56 by marcmees
amazing puzzle. I liked the way the region size plays a great role in the YY construction. enjoyed that. thanks.
-- Thank you @marcmees! I'm glad you like the interaction of constraints.
on 30. August 2022, 22:23 by Dandelo
Great puzzle.
-- Thank you @Dandelo!
on 30. August 2022, 15:24 by KNT
Loved this :)
-- Thank you @KNT, glad to hear!
on 30. August 2022, 14:18 by polar
Very fun puzzle! Thanks for persevering with setting it - totally worth it IMO :)
-- Thank you @polar for the solve and feedback!
Setting this was quite the challenge, but it helped a lot once I learned that the number of unshaded cells in the grid is entirely defined by the border shading. Luckily I was only 1 cell off in the early versions of the puzzle.
on 30. August 2022, 11:45 by Jesper
@Dandelo: shaded cells do not obstruct the view
on 30. August 2022, 11:44 by MagnusJosefsson
Fantastic combination of puzzle types! Great break-in and very enjoyable throughout. Generally very smooth with one slightly tricker step midsolve that was very satisfying to spot. Really nice setting!
-- Thank you @MagnusJosefsson, I'm glad you enjoyed the solve! I think I know which step you're referring to :p and it is indeed one of my favourite moments in the puzzle!
on 30. August 2022, 11:44 by Jesper
Great puzzle! I really enjoyed it. Certainly a step up in difficulty from your last Yin Yang hybrid, but I would agree that no single deduction was hard.
-- Thank you @Jesper for the kind words on it! I suppose setting your Yin Yang CC helped with some of the logic :)
on 30. August 2022, 10:26 by kjholt
Must all cells with arrows contain a digit? I'm a bit unclear on whether a cell is clued only if it has both arrows and a digit or whether some arrows can be red herrings.
-- All cells with arrows are unshaded and therefore they must contain digits.
