hutt's puzzle dump

T he view from up here is incredible. I look north and see nothing but open sea. Then my eyes roam west, and farther, way past the horizon and slightly north, is the peninsula where I began. I turn further counterclockwise, now downward, and I see the lake at the center of the island forming a very natural shape that tapers off quickly into the line of a river running into the sea. The box lantern I prepared has capsized and the shallow ground flickers from the light of an electric candle; I'll make sure to retrieve it later. Now I look straight down and catch a puddle before I step in it. Its shape is oddly familiar to me. Can I place it? I run my pointer finger through the water and notice some slightly deeper etching. It says something, and I know precisely why. The ink above dries as I await my ride home. A prospective reader could say it's not ink, and I say not yet. My journal is not necessarily in print. I ponder the artist's challenge this month. Perhaps, if one we...

P laying over a solar radio is some classical music I'm not familiar with. The violin helps provide some atmosphere to the daunting mountain in front of me. The lake here reminded me that I brought a lantern, which I deposited in lieu of a flag. Am I prepared for the final stretch? Rules: Solve as a Sashikazune , and draw an orthogonal path from the bottom to the top.  The path cannot revisit clueless regions.  If the path visits a region with clues, it must visit an amount of times equal to the amount of clues and each visit must travel an amount of squares provided by a different clue in the region.  Question marks for the path borrow from what they would be in the Sashikazune. penpa link

M aybe I had channeled my inner navigator. Looking behind me, I do have a hunch that I didn't walk over the southeast corner of this island, but apart from this, I've managed to be extremely thorough in travelling everywhere without retracing my steps. I plan to spend today drafting a map as the waves approach me from three sides. Rules:  Draw a path, which visits every cell but may move diagonally and cross itself, that starts by moving from the 9 to the 2 and ends by moving from the 1 to the 0.  Place a digit from 1 to 8 in each cell such that each digit stands for a different compass direction, which you can keep track of on the right. The path must travel one space in the corresponding direction from each number. Circles are Kropki clues: cells separated by a black circle have a ratio of 2:1 and cells separated by a white circle have a difference of 1. penpa link

O ver half of this island is taken up by a large but rather homogenous dark oak forest. The trees are twice as thick as I was expecting. Due to this, I'm not entirely confident I visited the entirety of this area, but I did manage to traverse it to the next section. Rules: Solve as a Heyawake , except by shading 2x2 squares instead of 1x1 squares. penpa link

R ight now, I'm starting to think I should've found a way to preserve the motorcycle. All about this section of the island are assorted trails, not necessarily unsimilar to those I saw on the eighth day. Or was it the fourth? I've been walking a long road, and my backpack is beginning to feel less full than when I started. Rules: Place the pieces into the grid (without rotation or reflection) to create a Country Road puzzle, which uses a path that enters and exits the grid where indicated instead of a loop. penpa link

P roperly completing my round trip of this island, I look south and once again see the rhino. I decide, while I still remember I have it, to test the camera. Truthfully, I should have been using it more often than I have, but better late than never. Rules: The orthogonal path in this 8x8 grid enters from the east and exits north.  The pictures may have been rotated, but they have not been reflected.

H alfway across the island, I encountered a second river, but this one gave me no trouble. Beyond it was a large pumpkin patch maintained by an old scarecrow. The birds must have wisened up because several of the pumpkins have been broken into from one side, spilling their seeds outward across the ground. It would be no use waiting here a week for the Great Pumpkin, so I found my way across the patch and to the west. Rules: This is a Jack-o'-Lanterns puzzle. penpa link

T iming should be considered when using an asynchronous format. These words I write are revealed later than when I describe, but as I get closer to the destination, so do these inked phrases. Haste makes waste, but so does procrastination. I must make up for lost time on the expedition. I walked in as straight a path as I was able to visit today's points of interest. Rules: Solve using a path instead of a loop. (If "Check multiple errors" is enabled, the only one given in the solution should be about dead-end lines.) Also, no line segment may be of length 1. https://puzz.link/p?geradeweg/v:/8/8/2p.r3t2r.p3

N ow that I'm getting relatively close to the end, fatigue is starting to kick in. I dropped my bag again while crossing a river to the next spot of land, but this time there's no lake. At this rate, my camera might rust before I get to the peak! The ground here is closer than usual to the sea: as the tide comes in it fills little puddles by the shore. I spent the evening watching sediment be taken in and out by the tide. Rules (this one's a doozy): This puzzle is inspired by Dosun-Fuwari and  Aquarium. Shade some cells to represent water. Any cell directly below, left, or right of a water cell in the same region is also water. Place a black circle (iron ball) and a white circle (beach ball) in every region, such that every row and column contains exactly two balls. Iron balls must be submerged in water and cannot be immediately above a cell in the same region. Beach balls must not be submerged in water, but they must be immediately above a cell which is either water or out...

E leven tents were left behind at this tip. Did people already visit here from the south? The camp appears abandoned. I pitched my own tent on the remaining tree for the night. Rules: Solve like Tents , except instead of having number clues, all the empty spaces must be orthogonally connected. penpa link

E merging from the forest, I headed east across the water to the next island to find myself in a grassy plain. Behold, the majestic rhinoceros! I took a calming breath and fancied myself Albert Andreas Armadillo, but the rhino seemed indifferent to my presence, continuing to graze near a patch of lavenders. Although I conceived this puzzle idea before learning about it, I must mention LinkedIn's game CrossClimb. Rules: Answer the ten clues in a way that forms a word ladder from RHINO to CRASH (the name for a group of rhinos). Each answer will be five letters long, and consecutive words in the ladder will differ only by a single letter, but the clues are not in the correct order. An adjective that Wikipedia uses to describe the skin of a rhinoceros Inconsiderate Its opposite in October is often provided as an incentive for it year-round Major river known for passing through Germany Meet on one's path Pain in the neck Pronoun that makes "To the person who is currently readin...

There doesn't appear to be an entry for today. penpa link

F inding that my jump was slightly too short, adrenaline helped me pull a Yoshi maneuver off the motorcycle to barely cross the gap. This same strategy cannot apply to the geological marvel in front of me: cliffs that jut up from the earth and evoke images of grand blocky terrain. The only way forward is a thicket to the south, so before I press onward, I ought to try a vantage point from the slanted ridge to see if the canopy is as protected as the ground. Rules: This puzzle takes inspiration from Plateaus by Obvious and Mountain Climbers by Hempuli. Stack some n x n x 1 square prisms in the grid, which lay square-side-up. No squares at the same height should be adjacent, but every square should be supported against gravity by at least part of a square on the layer directly below it. There are many ways to stack the squares, so their specific locations are not required for the solution. The grid is a top-down view. Numbers reveal the altitude of the highest square in the column, with ...

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...

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 of the journal.

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

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

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

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

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

  S ince I couldn't use a microwave or anything like that, I brought mostly snacks for nourishment. I made sure to bring plenty so I wouldn't run out. While I could go east to cut across the center of the island, I might as well continue north to reach the corner. https://puzz.link/p?cbanana/4/4/444g444g44l https://puzz.link/p?cbanana/4/4/ai1h1n https://puzz.link/p?cbanana/4/4/3j3l5i https://puzz.link/p?dbchoco/4/4/v700m4n https://puzz.link/p?dbchoco/4/4/hr60k1j1k https://puzz.link/p?dbchoco/4/4/ml90v https://puzz.link/p?brownies/4/4/.4g9g9j9g9g../ https://puzz.link/p?brownies/4/4/g10j9g99h11g https://puzz.link/p?brownies/4/4/.g9.11h99i1g9 https://puzz.link/p?lollipops/4/4/c12f2a2b https://puzz.link/p?lollipops/4/4/e3f1b1 https://puzz.link/p?lollipops/4/4/a1h1a3c Rules: Solve as a Choco Banana, variant Double Choco, Brownies, and Lollipops simultaneously.  Shaded regions are not allowed to be subdivided in the Double Choco.  Lollipop sticks are interpreted as motion ...

  N orthward is where I planned to go, but I wanted to walk east a bit first to follow the river. I read somewhere that moss tends to grow on the north sides of trees, and that by the time I've located a tree to find moss on, a wandering guitarist should walk up to me and ask if I want to hear "Wonderwall". It occurred to me as I studied motion between the trees that I wasn't alone on this island. While instinct told me the nomadic wanderers would be friendly, I still didn't want to get in their way. Rules: This puzzle is inspired by Roma . Place an arrow that points left, right, up, or down into each cell.  Arrows don't repeat within a region.  Some arrows will form a path that can be followed by moving one space in the direction each arrow points, which spans all the way from somewhere on the leftmost column to out the rightmost column.  All other arrows will eventually point to themselves in loops; every loop has a different length. penpa link

  A round this area, the air is abnormally arid. The sun beats down as the clouds part. Upon reflection, perhaps I should have traveled with a partner, to divide and conquer. At least I'll be able to wade to the next island after passing through. Rules:  Draw an orthogonal path that starts somewhere on the left and ends somewhere on the right.  The path must touch (but not pass through) every black triangle, as though reflecting off of them.  A region will be defined as an orthogonally-connected mass of cells not passed through by the path.  Four such regions contain exactly two stars each, and these four regions make two pairs of equal area. penpa link

  S wimming across the rivers to visit the middle southern tip of the island was more efficient than retracing my steps. I felt obliged to hike some of the trails left behind, but some of them would have to wait. I especially couldn't attempt the ones deep underwater offshore. I can't swim that far. Rules: Solve as a Water Walk , except with a path that travels from the leftmost trail to the rightmost trail. Some trails have been marked: if the path goes over a trail, it must follow the full trail. penpa link (Note: there is a slight nonuniqueness that can be fixed by adding 2-cell horizontal trails directly above the submerged ones.)

  L ots of things have happened on this day in history. A Nobel Prize physicist was born, and from my surname I assume I'm related. I've heard I was named after a famous poet, who died today. If I told someone who knew me that my first name was his middle name, they would likely be able to guess the poet. There were also a couple violent battles that happened today, one of which was an infamous football game. I'm from the city of one team in the state of the other, but the latter state plays ballgames not too far from my residence. Also today, I tripped exploring the coast and my passport fell out of my bag and got carried away by the tide. I'm not too upset since it was going to expire in 50 days anyway. Had I known the procedures and waited an extra day, it would have been good for much longer. The writer is fictional, but all other references in the first paragraph are to real people, places, and events. What are the writer's first and last name, date of birth, c...

  A t this corner of the island, the ground creates a downward slope. The dirt is loose enough that a tulip that burst from the ground now lays on its side. I'll have to be careful on this trek: one misstep and everything literally goes south.  Rules: This puzzle is inspired by WordBrain. Trace a path between cells, which may move diagonally and cross itself, that visits every cell once. The path should spell a sequence of words: the first word has been provided, and the rest are twelve five-letter words. Each individual column's cells must be visited in order from top to bottom. The intended twelve words can be split into two groups of six, where the two categories are specific related properties (that don't together account for every word in the English language). The given word also fits into one of the categories. penpa link

  N ow a thin fog began to set in, making it difficult to see the path westward. Luckily, I packed some binoculars, which allowed me to look ahead. Rules: Draw a path that enters and exits the grid from the left and right sides of a certain row. The path doesn't pass through shaded squares.  Triangles are Hyperopia clues: they point in the one cardinal direction with the furthest line segment, with seeing no segment counting as a distance of infinity.  You may shade squares you know are not on the path, which will reveal five additional clues. penpa link

  R ambling across this comb-shaped island are various natural trails. It appears care was taken not to disturb the exotic florae, yet when I spied a shamrock 'twixt the cob bushes with an extra cloverleaf, I made sure to keep it in my pocket. In many places, the paths seamlessly taper off into the dirt before picking up again somewhere in the distance. Rules: This puzzle is based on Doric Ivy . Variant rule: Shapes have been hidden on the clues. (Note: This puzzle was found to be nonunique, but it could possibly be fixed by requiring the upper 1 to have a triangle.) penpa link

 U p to my knees in swamp water was not how I intended to spend tonight. After noticing that I couldn't actually continue south from the previous field without wading, I cut east to explore the rest of the first island. Since this third section led nowhere, I put on my boots and waded south from it to the opposite shore. Rules: Shade some squares in "swampy boots" formations: pairs of vertical dominoes at the same height but with two cells of horizontal space between them.  Boots cannot be orthogonally adjacent.  Numbers shouldn't be shaded and represent the amount of shaded squares around them, minesweeper-style.  Only one column should have no boots. The top and bottom rows are not part of the grid. They're just meant to represent the shores. penpa link

  O verhead, I see nothing but clear skies. I made sure to check that the weather would be pleasant before beginning my journey, but I can't say for certain what I'll discover out here. The lay of the land and what it holds have barely been cataloged online. Rules: This puzzle's rules were adapted from anurag's "Clear Skies", replacing an uncertain rule with one inspired by the original genre, and also replacing the loop with a path that starts where indicated on the top and exits downward from somewhere on the bottom row. penpa link