bakpao's puzzles

While I usually don't post classic puzzles supported on puzz.link to my blog, I already tweeted a similar puzzle recently, so I figured this would fit best on here (hence why it's on penpa only - puzz.link links on this blog get picked up by puzz.link). The other puzzle is visually less appealing but had some different logical steps I wanted to showcase. After finishing that one, I decided to try the full layout as well, to see if I could make that work too. The result is this puzzle, which is visually more striking and has a completely different solve path and solution. It's very possible this exact idea/layout has been done before, in which case feel free to let me know - I couldn't find any in a quick search. If you're having trouble breaking in - here's a hint ( ROT13 ):  guvax tybonyyl - ubj znal frtzragf ner erdhverq ng zvavzhz cre frg bs qvntbany pyhrf gb fcyvg va/bhg cnevgl? Difficulty: 4/5 (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Draw a non-intersecting loop through...

It's been a while since I did a hybrid, so here's a new one! I like how well Linesweeper works for hybrids and will probably do some more combinations with other loop genres for the next few posts. Difficulty: 3/5 (base rules from Puzzle Rules ) Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some empty cells.  Masyu: The loop passes through every circle. The loop must turn on black circles and travel straight through the cells on either side. The loop must go straight through white circles, and turn in at least one of the cells on either side. Linesweeper: Clues represent how many of the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue are used by loop. The loop cannot pass through the clues. Play on penpa https://tinyurl.com/2gcjezal

I wrote this puzzle a few months ago - my first experience writing the genre. I kept it on the backlog for a while, but with the implementation of the genre over on pzprxs, now seems like a good opportunity to release it. There was a bit of discussion about whether rows/columns  are allowed to be unclued to indicate no  information given, or need to have a wildcard. There seemed to be arguments supporting both sides, but no clear consensus. While the implementation (now) allows for both options, I think my stance for this genre in particular is that because wildcards exist, they should be given, rather than not give any clue at all. Even if zero r/cs are completely pointless and even if for this puzzle it kind of breaks the aesthetic. Difficulty: 3/5 (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded. Clues outside the grid represent the lengths of the blocks of consecutive shaded...

There have been a few really nice unequal lengths slitherlinks lately, and I wanted to try setting one for myself. It's not quite as minimal a grid as some of the recent ones, mostly because of the clue theme I chose (I did manage one, but it made the solve very repetitive), but I think this still came out quite a fun puzzle. Difficulty: 2.5/5 (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Connect some pairs of orthogonally adjacent dots to form a single non-intersecting loop. Clues represent the number of edges drawn surrounding the clue (up to four). No two consecutive straight line segments may be the same length. Play on penpa https://tinyurl.com/2pqgdkll

This genre keeps drawing me back in - it's so much fun to set and solve. After two relatively straightforward ones, I tried  writing a bigger and harder one this time. I'm particularly fond of the ending (hopefully you'll figure out why)!   Difficulty: 4/5 (rules from  Puzzle Rules ) Shade some cells such that each connected group of shaded cells contains exactly one clue. Clues must be shaded, and indicate the size of their group of shaded cells. Each group of shaded cells must be connected by a corner to at least one other, forming networks. Two shaded groups belonging to the same network may not have the same shape and size, counting rotations and reflections as the same. Play on pzprxs  https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?chainedb/14/14/3m8v5k3g1l5i2i3q6q6p2i3i4r5i4i6p4q2q4i4i4l4g4k4v2m3