This is the archive of the old posts from Djape .Net, more or less as they used to be. Please go to djape.net to see the new website.

Nurikabe

As you may have noticed, I’ve changed things a little on the site, by removing some of the daily puzzles. While Daily Killer Sudoku and Daily Sudoku variation will remain, as well as bi-Weekly Samurai Sudoku, all other puzzles will be posted here, on the main page of the site. Expect at least a couple of puzzles every week, if not more. All sorts of puzzles will be posted, with no particular schedule. So, next up is Nurikabe. I’ve only ever posted one of them and I’m still working on determining the difficulty of them, so please let me know how difficult you find them. If you are uncertain about the rules of Nurikabe, read my Nurikabe introductory article. Nurikabe 10×10 for January 8, 2010
(click to download or right-click to save the image!)

Difficult Nurikabe book


To see the solution to this puzzle click here
Cheers!
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10 Comments

  1. Isabel
    Posted January 10, 2010 at 10:14 pm | Permalink

    Not very difficult, but was confused about the rules. Can the white areas touch by the corners?

  2. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 11, 2010 at 8:29 am | Permalink

    The white areas can touch diagonally.

    Check out the example solution on the wikipedia page:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurikabe

    Another important point is each white area contains one and only one number.

    You cannot create a white area out of blank cells, and you cannot join 2 numbers into a single white area.

  3. Isabel
    Posted January 11, 2010 at 11:48 am | Permalink

    Yeah, that’s what I thought, but in that case the puzzle doesn’t have a unique solution.

  4. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 11, 2010 at 11:18 pm | Permalink

    Which puzzle?

    They all have unique solutions to me.

    If you believe a puzzle have multiple solutions, just post at least 2 of them out, and see if others can point out if you have made a mistake.

  5. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 12, 2010 at 7:35 pm | Permalink

    Isabel

    Good, I guess the lack of reply means you have spot your mistake and realise the solution for this puzzle is unique:

    #40###0###
    ##0#2#3#0#
    6#0#0#0#0#
    0#######0#
    0#2#0#3#4#
    0#0#2#0###
    0#####0#0#
    0#003###0#
    ######0#3#
    #02#004###

    It is just a coincidence that all the white areas in the solution do not touch diagonally.

    If you found other solutions with diagonally touching white areas, they are certain to violate the rules, one way or the other.

  6. Para
    Posted January 15, 2010 at 11:27 pm | Permalink

    This puzzle isn’t that hard. The problem mainly is that it is too minimal. It works only on the fact that the islands will only fit one way so that there aren’t any 2×2 areas anywhere. What makes Nurikabes harder is when there is only one way that all the water can connect AND there are no 2×2 areas anywhere. At least that is my opinion.

    Compare it for example to this 9×9 nurikabe I made.

    …..4…
    ………
    ….7….
    2..5…..
    ……3..
    ………
    …….4.
    …6…..
    ….3….

  7. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 22, 2010 at 12:46 am | Permalink

    Para

    Thank you for the 9×9 nurikabe. I think it makes a very hard puzzle for most players. Especially those who are not familiar with Nikoli puzzles.

    Here is what I think makes the hardest step:

    ####-400-
    #00–##-#
    ##D#70—
    2–5#-#–
    -#–C-3–
    #-AB—–
    #——4-
    #0-6#-#–
    ####30—

    From this position, to ‘grow’ the white area for the 5-clue, it must include A,B,C or D.

    It cannot include A or B because that would ‘link’ the 5-clue and 6-clue diagonally, and that in turn would prevent the black cells from being connected together in one piece.

    It cannot include C because it would very quickly force the 4 cells in rows 2 & 3, columns 8 & 9 to be unreachable from all number clues, thus creating a 2×2 black area.

    So the 5-clue must ‘link’ to D and also the 2 determined white cells above, and the whole white area for the 5-clue is determined, and the puzzle becomes very easy from that step.

    I wonder does anyone have a better way to solve it?

  8. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 22, 2010 at 12:50 am | Permalink

    I don’t know why, but in my grid some groups of short dashes are automatically changed to long dashes.

    Here is another grid (with commas replacing dashes to represent unsolved cells):

    ####,400,
    #00,,##,#
    ##D#70,,,
    2,,5#,#,,
    ,#,,C,3,,
    #,AB,,,,,
    #,,,,,,4,
    #0,6#,#,,
    ####30,,,

  9. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 22, 2010 at 9:50 am | Permalink

    Equal signs –> unsolved cells
    Hash signs –> black cells
    Zeros (and numbers) –> white cells

    # # # # = 4 0 0 =
    # 0 0 = = # # = #
    # # D # 7 0 = = =
    2 = = 5 # = # = =
    = # = = C = 3 = =
    # = A B = = = = =
    # = = = = = = 4 =
    # 0 = 6 # = # = =
    # # # # 3 0 = = =

    Solution:

    # # # # 0 4 0 0 #
    # 0 0 # # # # # #
    # # 0 # 7 0 0 0 0
    2 # 0 5 # # # # 0
    0 # # # 0 0 3 # 0
    # # 0 # # # # # #
    # 0 0 0 # 0 0 4 #
    # 0 # 6 # # # 0 #
    # # # # 3 0 0 # #

  10. nikoli_freak
    Posted January 22, 2010 at 9:59 am | Permalink

    Last try, using underscores for unsolved cells

    # # # # _ 4 0 0 _
    # 0 0 _ _ # # _ #
    # # D # 7 0 _ _ _
    2 _ _ 5 # _ # _ _
    _ # _ _ C _ 3 _ _
    # _ A B _ _ _ _ _
    # _ _ _ _ _ _ 4 _
    # 0 _ 6 # _ # _ _
    # # # # 3 0 _ _ _

    Sorry for so many tries. It would be nice to have a ‘preview’ feature when posting. 🙁

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