#A50: Tapa - Laurel

I found this year's advent calendar to be both a good challenge and a neat learning experience for me. This puzzle is my second advent capstone. Since last year's had several nonunique elements within it, I really hope (but cannot guarantee at the moment) that my Christmas gift this year has only one solution. That would be a Christmas miracle! Regardless, I had lots of fun making it, and I hope it's just as fun to solve!

Laurel: https://tinyurl.com/2xod85us

Solve the grid in its entirety as a Tapa, where each question mark stands for a single piece of a clue.

Additionally, each 5x5 (or in one case 10x5) section contains variant rules that may change or override clues, add additional constraints to their local shading, or even add a second layer of input type:

1. Christmas Lights

This section, being composed of shaded and unshaded cells, must be solved as an Akari. Clues may be shaded, turning them into Akari clues instead of Tapa clues.

2. White Elephant

For the clues, replace each ? with a 1, 2, or 3 such that no digit repeats in a row and column within this section.

3. Ornaments

This section should be solved as a Masyu. Circles in shaded cells are black and circles in unshaded cells are white.

4. Holly and Ivy

Within this section, the unshaded cells must all be connected without leaving the section, but there cannot be any loops of unshaded cells, not even 2x2 squares.

5. Stocking's Slitherlink

Draw a loop within this section passing through the centers of cells. It cannot cross itself or pass over any shaded cells. Clues on corners reveal how many loop segments pass directly between adjacent cells that the clue borders.

6. Mistletoe

When considering only the cells within this section, every unshaded cell is orthogonally adjacent to either 1, 3, or 4 other unshaded cells.

7. Milk and Cookies

This section should be solved as a Milk Tea. Circles in shaded cells are black and circles in unshaded cells are white.

8 & 9. Warm up by the Fireplace

Draw a loop within this large section. The left half follows Ice Walk rules in which the shaded cells are ice and the right half follows Fire Walk rules in which the shaded cells are fire. The loop must pass through all single-digit clues, causing them to also be interpreted as Ice Walk / Fire Walk clues, though it cannot pass through multi-digit clues. Ice and fire tiles cannot be adjacent because Water Walk wasn't on the calendar.

10. Following Starlight

If a star were placed in every unshaded cell, it should be possible to make a constellation out of all of them. (Stars cannot be near each other, but it must be possible to form one network with all the stars using orthogonal connections as in Seiza.)

11. Ribbons

The middle column is entirely unshaded. If a shaded cell in this section is seen by a clue in this section, then the cell seen two cells away from that clue in the same direction is also shaded. Guidelines have been included for visual reference.

12. Tinsel

When only considering the unshaded cells in this section, every orthogonally-connected mass of unshaded cells has an area of 5.

13. Looking For a Kropki Pair

Place a digit from 1 to 5 in every cell of this section so that each digit appears exactly once in every row and column. If every Kropki dot were placed, each shaded cell would border at least one black dot and every unshaded cell would border at least one white dot. Only given digits count as Tapa clues. No placed digits that are unshaded will be correct as Tapa clues.

14. Complete Cipher (Message I)

Each different letter stands for a different clue. The shaded status of the squares around the middle R must be the same for those around the other R without even having to rotate or reflect them.

15. Simple Cipher (Message II)

Each different letter stands for a different digit from 1 to 8.

16. Islands of Misfit Clues

Clues in this section may be shaded, turning them into special clues instead of Tapa clues. Using the special clues, this section must also be solved as either a Chained Block, an Archipelago, or an Aquapelago (your choice between the three).

17. Candy Canes

Solve as a Sniping Arrow, where the shaded cells are the walls and the question mark is both a Tapa clue and Sniping Arrow clue with the same number. If a dashed circle is unshaded, it must contain a tip (which thematically would be the hook of the candy cane. These circles are only provided for directional uniqueness and shouldn't be required to solve the Tapa as a whole.)

18. Anticipation

Orthogonally next to the 2 is a hidden 1 clue, and orthogonally next to both 1 clues are hidden 0 clues. These five clues are all the clues within this section. The two zeros will not be adjacent.

19. New Products

Every clue with multiple numbers has been replaced with the product of its numbers.

20. Glory to the New Born King

A Hidato puzzle is composed entirely of some unshaded cells in this section. If a circle is unshaded, the Tapa clue that would belong there is also a clue for the Hidato, with multi-digit clues being concatenated (e.g. 1,5 becomes 15)

21. Greed

Each clue only shows its maximum value.

22. Snow Fort

The shaded squares should solve this section as a Statue Park... it should've come with a shape bank, but I think a porch pirate stole it.

23. Charity

For each orthogonally-connected region of unshaded cells within this section that contain a clue, the set of row/column widths/heights (ala Lohkous) that the region has is the same as the numbers the question marks would be replaced by for the Tapa clue. Clues cannot repeat numbers.

24. St. Eadwald

It must be possible to divide the shaded cells within this section into tetrominoes, such that no orthogonally adjacent tetrominoes are the same shape (counting rotations and reflections as the same).

25. Merry Christmas!

There is no variant rule in this section.