Spirits of Serpentine was invented by the Japanese puzzle company
Nikoli (under the name Hebi-Ichigo) in early 2009.
1. Locate several snakes in the white cells of the grid. Each snake consists of five cells, numbered 1 (the head) through 5 (the tail). Consecutively numbered cells within a snake must share an edge.2. No two snakes may overlap or share an edge.
3. No snake may see another snake. A snake's eyes are on the side of its head opposite the number 2 cell. It can only see in that direction, in a straight line, up to the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer). (See this illustrated example.) 4. A cell containing a number and an arrow represents the first number encountered in the row or column pointed at by the arrow, up to the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer). A 0 means that no snake is encountered in this area.
