Hybrid Star Battle Series (019) - Chiaroscuro
(Published on 17. May 2023, 03:02 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 Chiaroscuro, a shading genre invented by PolmanPoppins on the CTC Community Discord. This genre is equipped by default with numeric clues, but we'll be using the Borders variant today.
As is becoming increasingly common with these kind of geometrically-constrained puzzles, there's no valid solution for a 2-star 8x8 puzzle, so I've provided a 1-star version instead.
Lastly, a scheduling update: I'm still planning to release a puzzle per week, but it seems that my schedule will work better to release them mid-week rather than on the weekend. Thanks for understanding!
Rules
Standard Chiaroscuro (Borders) and nearly standard Star Battle rules apply:
- Chiaroscuro (Borders): Shade some cells so that all areas of orthogonally connected shaded cells have an even number of cells and all areas of orthogonally connected unshaded cells have an odd number of cells. Two groups may not have the same shape and size, counting rotations and reflections as the same. A pair of cells separated by a bold border must contain one shaded cell and one unshaded cell.
- Star Battle: Place stars into some cells such that each row, column, and unshaded Chiaroscuro region contains exactly 2 stars (1 star in the example). Stars may not touch one another, not even diagonally.
Links
7x7 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 U*USUUU UUUSU*U.
Comments
on 5. June 2024, 17:37 by Roezaea
Wonderful puzzle! Hard to choose a single favorite of the hybrid series, but this has to be a candidate. Thanks for setting.
on 17. May 2023, 10:47 by Playmaker6174
Wow, what a great idea for a hybrid but the puzzle was also challenging for me (as a newbie of Chiaroscuro)! Took me a long while to realize the crucial points around the right side of the grid but after that, the solve became quite smoother but still very satisfying till the very end :)
on 17. May 2023, 05:12 by RJBlarmo
Cool hybrid idea and a fun solve!
