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Puzzletober 2024: Drive

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I t occurred to me, as I reached the shore of the next island, that I'd explored three and a half out of seven islands. If I keep my drive, I could finish my journey before I know it. A motorcycle appeared to have washed up on the shore. To my surprise, it's in working condition! It won't be much use with water on two sides, a dead end to the east and a valley before the cliff to the south, but I still consider it convenient. Before the cliff is a rather deep and steep canyon. Somehow, it seems I'll have to bridge the gap to continue forward. The ground before the valley is angled up, as though tectonic plates had no clue what to do here. I just got a really bad idea... Rules: Draw a path that starts by entering the grid from the arrow and ends somewhere on the bottom row. The path can't cross itself and is only allowed to make smooth 45-degree turns. The path cannot pass through the small circles and cannot turn on the shaded squares. No two consecutive path segmen
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Puzzletober 2024: Journal

F or once, the path forward can be seen at a glance. The journey is slow, but steady, and while I may not be able to guess how it ends just yet, I have faith that I'll be able to see the bigger picture eventually. I boldly etch my initials near the edge of the stream to my west and hope they will persist for a future reader.
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Puzzletober 2024: Grungy

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S ince I accidentally dropped my bag while wading westward, I spent most of today trying to clean it up using the isolated freshwater lake by the northwest of this plot of land. The floor was muddy enough that the bag got quite grungy. It took a while to remove the dirt from the hidden crevices. Rules: Draw a loop along the edges of cells.  Numbers are Product Bag clues: they must be inside the loop and reveal the product of the lengths of the row and column they can see within the loop.  Circles must be outside the loop but are next to the loop on three sides; all possible circles are given. penpa link
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Puzzletober 2024: Guidebook

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I feel insightful for recognizing this corner of the island. Everything I need to know about it is in my guidebook. penpa link
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Puzzletober 2024: Roam

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R ight in front of me is the highest point on this square-shaped island, but the cliff looks too steep to ascend, so I'll have to go south. It's unclear at the moment exactly how I want to approach getting there, so I'll have to trust that, from here on out, there's a way I can cover the whole area without retracing my steps instead of having to roam senselessly. The rules to this puzzle are meant to be deduced. The answer is a path. penpa link
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Puzzletober 2024: Horizon

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E ven though I prefer to stay on land, the submerged land bridge revealing a path to another island entices me to explore east instead of south. Something shiny on the horizon catches my eye and motivates me to go the extra mile today. Rules:  Solve the left half as a Bosnian Road  with a path instead of a loop and the right half as a Nurikabe with some clues missing. The Bosnian road should start somewhere on the left edge and end next to the Nurikabe; the cell to the right of the endpoint will be part of the river, and there must be only one way to follow the river to the right edge. Within both puzzles, every shaded square must be horizontally adjacent to at least one other shaded square. penpa link
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Puzzletober 2024: Remote

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W hile this corner of the island felt remote, looking westward I could make out the plain that I had explored before wading through the swamp. This distance really undercuts how far I've already traveled, but it also emphasizes how connected the place is. Rules: Get from the number in the bottom-right to the number in the top-right. From each number, you must move to another square with a number in it such that the distance between the centers of those squares exactly equals the number you move from. penpa link
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