Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

To Christmas 2023 some eager puzzlefriends have again arranged a group in which everybody had to make anonymously a puzzle for someone else. These puzzles are now presented one after the other here in the portal.

What is going on here? Santa Claus is beside himself: his garden gnome Nissie has once again scattered all kinds of flower seeds around, resulting in a potpourri of different varieties: from Tapa plants to Railway Station flowers to Cave growths, it's all here. But it was meant to be a nice classical Permaculture! At least the plants have, of their own accord, united with their own species and spread out into different areas. But now it's fallen to Santa to bring the plants together into a communal Permaculture. If only he could determine which species is in which area…

Rules: Divide the grid into two sections, such that, within each quadrant, at least one digit belongs to each section. In one section, draw a loop through some cell midpoints, and in the other section, shade some cells so that all the shaded cells are connected into one contiguous shape. The digits in different quadrants have different meanings; which meaning is associated with which quadrant remains to be determined. In addition, there are attributes that each quadrant must fulfill. Each quadrant has one attribute and one digit rule for the loop section, and another attribute and another digit rule for the shading section (thus four added rules per quadrant). These added rules are as follows:

For the loop section:

• Here the loop may cross itself (but not in the other quadrants)
• Here the loop may travel diagonally (but not in the other quadrants)
• Here the loop passes through all the cells
• Here, consecutive segments of the path have differing lengths (this includes loop segments that cross into other quadrants)

For the shading section:

• Here the unshaded cells form a single shape (within the quadrant)
• Here there are no 2x2 squares which are entirely shaded or entirely unshaded
• Here there are no 1x4 rectangles which are entirely shaded or entirely unshaded (in either orientation)
• Here the shaded cells form a snake that may not touch itself diagonally

The meanings of the digits are, for the loop section:

• loop length clues (the loop crosses through all digits, and the length may extend into other quadrants)
• loop cell count (how many of the (up to 8) neighboring cells (including cells from neighboring quadrants)), are visited by the loop)
• railway station clues (the loop passes straight through every digit, and must visit the digits in ascending order, even when the loop leaves the quadrant and returns)
• 45° turns (the loop passes through all digits, and each digit indicates the angle at which the loop turns, between 1 and 4)

The meanings of the digits are, for the shading section:

• Nurikabe clues (Digits may not be shaded, and they indicate the size of the unshaded region within the quadrant; each unshaded regino has exactly one digit)
• Tapa clues (Digits may not be shaded; shaded cells from other quadrants are counted)
• Minesweeper clues (Digits may not be shaded; shaded cells from other quadrants are counted)
• Cave clues (Digits are shaded and give the count of visible shaded cells in all horizontal and vertical directions, whereby unshaded cells (but not quadrant borders) block the view)