Monday Mutant 44: Right Way Robot

A robot is located on the cell with a red arrow, facing in the direction the arrow points. The robot is programmed to move forward until it reaches a wall (the perimeter of the puzzle or a black cell) or a cell it has already visited. At this point, the robot will attempt to turn 90 degrees to the right and continue moving forward again; if a wall or a cell that has already been visited it to its right, the robot will attempt to turn left instead. The robot will stop when it can no longer move to a cell it hasn't already visited. Shade in some of the cells black such that the robot will visit every white cell in the grid, and stop on a dot. Cells containing dots or arrows may not be black; additionally, the robot must exit a cell with an arrow (including the cell it starts on) in the direction the arrow indicates. (See here for an illustrated example.)

Monday Mutant 43: Right Way Robot

A robot is located on the cell with a red arrow, facing in the direction the arrow points. The robot is programmed to move forward until it reaches a wall (the perimeter of the puzzle or a black cell) or a cell it has already visited. At this point, the robot will attempt to turn 90 degrees to the right and continue moving forward again; if a wall or a cell that has already been visited it to its right, the robot will attempt to turn left instead. The robot will stop when it can no longer move to a cell it hasn't already visited. Shade in some of the cells black such that the robot will visit every white cell in the grid, and stop on a dot. Cells containing dots or arrows may not be black; additionally, the robot must exit a cell with an arrow (including the cell it starts on) in the direction the arrow indicates. (See here for an illustrated example.)

This concept was invented by MellowMelon. I feel very honored to have the privilege of working my monogram into a puzzle genre he created. :)

Puzzle 450: Room and Reason 35

I have yet again kept up the mentally exhausting tradition of posting a 31x45 puzzle every 25th puzzle. I feel very, very spent. I hope you're happy, readers!

I would like to thank the people, dogs, and God who have kept my blog and me alive. I can't think of much else to say, so here's a video I found while trying to find an interesting link related to the number 450.

Rules of Room and Reason 

(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 42: Battleships

Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. Additionally, some segments of the ships are shown within the grid, and cells with wavy lines are "water" cells which cannot contain ships. Find the ships.

Puzzle 449: Streaming Content 31

This puzzle marks the end of my series of seventeen 17x17 puzzles! I hope you, dear reader, have enjoyed solving these puzzles as much as I've enjoyed forcing myself to make them. Stay tuned tomorrow for a new Monday Mutant, and be on the lookout for puzzle 450, as well.

Today is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day, although that has no relevance to the puzzle below.

Rules of Streaming Content

Puzzle 448: Straight and Arrow 32

No comment.

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Puzzle 447: Room and Reason 34

Honestly, I'm amazed at how long I've kept this 17x17 series up without repeating a puzzle type. This is probably one of the types I don't mind repeating as much, though. :)

Rules of Room and Reason

Puzzle 446: Quad-Wrangle 16

No comment.

Rules of Quad-Wrangle

Puzzle 445: Seek and Spell 10

I was one of the 1% of American children who wasn't at all wild about Pokémon when it made its American debut in 1998. However, years later, I discovered Pokémon Puzzle League, a remake of the Super Nintendo game Tetris Attack, of which I was (and still am) a big fan. Merely expecting to tolerate the theme, I somehow ended up falling in love with the Pokémon franchise. Now I'm making puzzles like this one, and the one below. Wow.

This puzzle's construction was greatly assisted by Bulbapedia.

Rules of Seek and Spell

Puzzle 444: Streaming Content 30

No comment.

Rules of Streaming Content

Monday Mutant 41: Battleships

Thirty ships (as indicated below the grid: three four-cell ships, six three-cell ships, nine two-cell ships, and twelve one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. Additionally, some segments of the ships are shown within the grid, and cells with wavy lines are "water" cells which cannot contain ships. Find the ships.
Now with 200% more ships and 189% more grid! Also, this doesn't count as part of my series of seventeen 17x17 puzzles.

Puzzle 443: Artist's Block 9

No comment.

Rules of Artist's Block

Puzzle 442: Circumnavi-Gates 15

No comment.

Rules of Circumnavi-Gates

Puzzle 441: Blackbarrier Jam 15

No comment.

Rules of Blackbarrier Jam

Puzzle 440: Twincognito 21

If you thought I'd go through this whole 17x17 puzzle series without subjecting you to a Twincognito, you are hopelessly naive.

Rules of Twincognito

Puzzle 439: Tetra Firma 28

No comment.
ERRATUM: Blahhhhhh. What is wrong with my brain today? This puzzle has been fixed to reduce the number of solutions by 50%.

Rules of Tetra Firma

Puzzle 438: Straight and Arrow 31

Issue 10 of Sudoku Xtra is out! It contains three puzzles submitted by me. What does that have to do with the puzzle below? Nothing.

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Monday Mutant 40: Cross the Streams (partially inverted)

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers to the left of a row represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row. For example, a clue of "3" means the row has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. In the same fashion, numbers above a column represent the groups of consecutive white cells which are in that column. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black or white cells whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black or white cells, including none at all.
Cross the Streams is back with a vengeance!

Puzzle 437: Room and Reason 33

No comment.

Rules of Room and Reason

Puzzle 436: Process of Illumination 32

No comment.

Rules of Process of Illumination

Puzzle 435: Block Band 5

No comment.

Rules of Block Band

Puzzle 434: Pearls of Wisdom 42

No comment.

Rules of Pearls of Wisdom

Puzzle 433: Polyominous 42

In a bold attempt to increase my puzzle output, from now until September 19, I hope to post a new 17x17 puzzle every day (excluding Mondays). That's 17 17x17 puzzles! Can I do it? We'll see!

Rules of Polyominous