#20 - Shady Mastermind (Linked Kurotto, Aqre, Tapa, Nurikabe)

   A set of 4 puzzles, linked through Mastermind clues. I created this puzzle on 27 June, 2021. This is a revised version of my entry to a speedsetting competition hosted on the CTC Discord, in which the original puzzle I created took 3rd place. We were prompted to choose at least two of the 4 genres which appear in this puzzle, and link them through Mastermind clues of our choosing. The original puzzle was made in around 90 minutes. I was doing really well, but resolving the Aqre nicely proved to be a challenge, due to my limited experience both solving and setting the genre, resulting in a puzzle that I was mostly satisfied with, but ultimately left a sour taste, as I knew I could do better with the Aqre grid. Today I revisited it and tweaked it, and the end result is much nicer to walk through. 

Difficulty: 3/5

Normal aqre, kurotto, nurikabe and tapa rules apply. (Not listing all the rules here, they can however be found in Eric Fox' Puzzle Rules).

Additionally, clues between grids give the total count of shaded cells in the respective row or column (the TOTAL of BOTH grids the clue looks at).

All shaded cells in the kurotto grid must be connected to a circle.


(Edit 2nd July: The revised version unfortunately still had an issue, many thanks to Nikolai for spotting it and letting me know in the comments. This version is fixed and is final - my apologies for the inconvenience to anyone who tried this puzzle and didn't manage to get through it because of it). 

Solve on penpa






The original version of the puzzle is here: https://git.io/JcTl6. The logic is mostly the same, except for the Aqre grid which is a lot less elegant.






Comments

  1. Nikolai30 June 2021 at 23:16

    The Aqre grid doesn't seem to work like that. It does work if you change the 5 to a 6, and I did get a ``Your Solution Is Correct'' on Penpa when I tried an answer with six shaded cells in that room. However, that change wouldn't fix things because there are two solutions with six shaded cells there. (The 2 by 4 room in the lower middle resolves differently.) It was a really nice puzzle up until the very end -- do you think you could repair it?

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    1. bakpao2 July 2021 at 23:07

      Hi Nikolai,

      Many thanks for trying the puzzle and apologies for a slight delay in response (blog is still fairly new, and your comment is actually the first one! :) Looks like my notifications weren't set up properly...)

      I revisited the puzzle and it seems like you were correct. I originally had the revised version with no clues at all in the center 2x4s and had missed the multiple solutions. I thought a 5 in either region would resolve it, but looks like I still missed a possibility >.< I can however confirm that a 5 in the top region (and no clue in the bottom) does make the puzzle unique - I will be changing the puzzle to that.

      Many thanks for trying the puzzle and the feedback again, appreciate it a lot :)

      Delete
    2. bakpao2 July 2021 at 23:08

      Still missed the break* of course, not another possibility :)

      Delete
  2. Rog6 July 2021 at 00:05

    Very nice puzzle although I believe there is still an ambiguity in the final Kurotto grid. Shading the square between the 3 and 13, as well as the square above the 5, allows you to move around two other cells in the middle as well and still satisfy all the constraints.

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    1. bakpao6 July 2021 at 12:07

      Hi Rog,

      Thank you for trying the puzzle!

      Could you share a picture of the solution you reached? I'm trying to replicate, but run into a contradiction every time so I'm curious as to what you may have found.

      Delete
    2. Rog8 July 2021 at 02:43

      Sure, here it is: https://pasteboard.co/Ka8YajZ.png. I can't see where it conflicts with anything.

      Delete
    3. bakpao8 July 2021 at 12:55

      Ah yes thanks for sharing.

      This would strand the cell below the 3, which under normal rules would be fine, but a snippet is included in the rules that all shaded cells must be connected to a white circle.

      During the speedsetting session this caused a fair bit of confusion, as the majority of participants - myself included - was not well versed enough in Kurotto variants where these cells can occur, and thus considered them as inherently impossible. Only after judging began, did a couple of puzzles arise where multiple solutions could be valid with stranded shaded cells. We made the decision to allow it and include the extra rule if it meant the puzzle was unique, so I went with it.

      Hopefully that clears things up!

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    4. Rog9 July 2021 at 01:15

      Ah yes, it does clear it up. I didn't catch the inclusion of the extra rule.

      Thanks for clarifying - still a very nice puzzle!

      Delete

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