Broken Sign Blog
#091: Slitherlink (Divergent)
25 April 2023The Cracking the Cryptic Discord server has started running some guest series of puzzles. There was a Slitherlink variant series over the last month to which I contributed this puzzle. Similar to Twopa or my previous Rail Tool, you need to find a pair of solutions such that each clue is satisfied differently in both solutions.
Also, I really felt this concept needed a generic variant name, instead of a bunch of genre-specific puns that all imply the same thing. DireKrow suggested “Divergent” and I think that works really well.
For the purposes of answer checking in penpa, some white circles have been placed on key edges, which will only become visible in the form of “breaking” an edge if you draw over them. If you do see your drawn line appear broken, this means you’re drawing that particular solution on the wrong side. Unfortunately, that means you can’t place crossmarks on those edges either.
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).
Variant: Divergent — The puzzle is non-unique. Find two solutions such that the arrangement of edges around each number is different in both solutions.