Thread - Shading & Loops - 10th - 16th Apr 2026 - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier 2026

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Interesting stuff! I have some questions though:

- I am having a bit of trouble with the Guide Arrow [Loop] rules. Is the following a correct paraphrase?

Shade some empty cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area, which contains exactly one loop. (A 2x2 square of cells is considered a loop.) Cells with stars must be unshaded and part of the loop. Cells with arrows must be unshaded, but not on the loop. An arrow indicates the only direction in which one could begin a path to the loop without going through a shaded cell or backtracking.

- For the Water Walk [Isowatari] example, the Isowatari part of the puzzle is solvable without any deductions from the Water Walk part. Is this necessarily true for the contest puzzles as well? (I'm guessing not, but...)


Restricted Thread This is a restricted thread corresponding to an ongoing contest at LMI. This mainly means : Comments posted in the thread after the contest started can only be viewed by players who have finished the contest. If you are not logged in to forum or if you have not finished the contest, you will see first few characters of the post. The purpose is to encourage players to freely post comments while the contest is running. Admins can make the post public before the contest is over, if it does not reveal anything about the puzzles. All the posts will be made public after the contest is over.
	@ 2026-04-07 5:48 PM (#39192) (#39192) Top
prasanna16391 Posts: 1975 Country : India	prasanna16391 posted @ 2026-04-07 5:48 PM Link for rules and other details about Puzzle Ramayan: http://logicmastersindia.com/PR/2026pr.asp The Instruction Booklet is now available on the submission page - https://logicmastersindia.com/live/?contest=PR202604
	@ 2026-04-07 5:56 PM (#39193 - in reply to #39192) (#39193) Top
prasanna16391 Posts: 1975 Country : India	prasanna16391 posted @ 2026-04-07 5:56 PM The submission page is live with the Instruction Booklet.
	@ 2026-04-08 11:11 AM (#39196 - in reply to #39192) (#39196) Top
mstang Posts: 77 Country : United States	mstang posted @ 2026-04-08 11:11 AM Interesting stuff! I have some questions though: - I am having a bit of trouble with the Guide Arrow [Loop] rules. Is the following a correct paraphrase? Shade some empty cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area, which contains exactly one loop. (A 2x2 square of cells is considered a loop.) Cells with stars must be unshaded and part of the loop. Cells with arrows must be unshaded, but not on the loop. An arrow indicates the only direction in which one could begin a path to the loop without going through a shaded cell or backtracking. - For the Water Walk [Isowatari] example, the Isowatari part of the puzzle is solvable without any deductions from the Water Walk part. Is this necessarily true for the contest puzzles as well? (I'm guessing not, but...)
	@ 2026-04-09 1:13 PM (#39233 - in reply to #39192) (#39233) Top
Menderbug Posts: 18 Country : Germany	Menderbug posted @ 2026-04-09 1:13 PM 1. That's correct. 2. The Isowatari part of these puzzles is not necessarily solvable on its own.
	@ 2026-04-09 10:37 PM (#39245 - in reply to #39192) (#39245) Top
prasanna16391 Posts: 1975 Country : India	prasanna16391 posted @ 2026-04-09 10:37 PM Version 2 of the IB has been uploaded. Changes - 1. Points Distribution added. 2. Number of PB pages added. 3. The rules of puzzle 10 and 11 have been modified for better understanding (I borrowed the wording above a bit)
	@ 2026-04-09 11:44 PM (#39246 - in reply to #39192) (#39246) Top
prasanna16391 Posts: 1975 Country : India	prasanna16391 posted @ 2026-04-09 11:44 PM Contest start pushed by 30 minutes.
	@ 2026-04-10 12:15 AM (#39247 - in reply to #39192) (#39247) Top
prasanna16391 Posts: 1975 Country : India	prasanna16391 posted @ 2026-04-10 12:15 AM Password Protected Puzzle Booklet available to download.