Hybrid Star Battle Series (015) - Norinuri
(Published on 16. April 2023, 23:21 by BenceJoful)
Intro
For this Hybrid Star Battle Series I will be sharing a new puzzle each week combining Star Battle with another puzzle genre. This week's genre is Norinuri (also sometimes called Norikabe), which is itself a bit of a hybrid between Norinori and Nurikabe.
The geometry of this ruleset is quite constraining, which allowed me to get away without using any numbers. However, it also prevented me from constructing a 2-star example as I normally would - don't be fooled, though, the main puzzle has 2 stars in each region.
Rules
Standard Norinuri (aka Norikabe) and Star Battle rules apply:
- Shade some dominoes of cells, dividing the grid into regions. Shaded dominoes may not touch orthogonally. Clues cannot be shaded, and every orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells contains exactly one clue.
- Star Battle: Place stars into some cells such that each row, column, and unshaded region contains exactly 2 stars (1 star in the example). Stars may not touch one another, not even diagonally.
Links
8x8 1-star Example (Penpa+ link):
Solution code: Along row 7, then column 7: if the cell has a star, give *. Otherwise, give S if the cell is shaded, and U is the cell is unshaded. In the above example, the solution code is UUSUU*SU USSU*SSU.
Comments
on 17. April 2023, 22:51 by Dandelo
Ah, ok. I didn't know Norinuri before. So to be exact: Norinuri with only question marks as clues is the same as Dominion with all clues different.
I agree that Dominion becomes much harder on larger grids. And that it is a good idea for this series
on 17. April 2023, 22:11 by BenceJoful
@Dandelo - true, the domino shading is quite similar to dominion, I didn't think of that. In any case, since this puzzle doesn't use clues for region sizes (as in Norinuri) nor connecting multiple clues (as in Dominion), I think this hybrid could go with either.
Dominion is a fun idea for the future! It would probably also be quite easy to solve - possibly more tricky on a bigger board. I'll have to think about it ;)
on 17. April 2023, 21:58 by Dandelo
Very nice.
But it felt more like Dominion than Nurikabe or Norinori.
Norinuri is a Dominion, where all givens are different.
on 17. April 2023, 11:23 by szabog
Thank you :)
on 17. April 2023, 11:16 by Playmaker6174
So much fun and smoothness, thank you for this lovely snack :)
on 17. April 2023, 09:57 by Piatato
Fun puzzle, thanks! :)
on 17. April 2023, 07:54 by wooferzfg
Fun and smooth, thanks! I've never done Norinuri before, yet this puzzle was very approachable.
