Rule of Thirds
(Published on 15. October 2025, 17:19 by sfushidahardy)
Rule of Thirds
This puzzle was made for round 3 of the Puzzle Agency Championship, in which we were tasked with setting a puzzle that involves partitioning the grid into three orthogonally connected groups. I hope you enjoy it!
- Divide the grid into three orthogonally connected regions. Clues in the puzzle are region border clues of three ambiguous types, determined by the region they belong to. The phrase 'region border' refers to both cell edges along the perimeter of the grid, and cell edges between distinct regions.
- Region 1: Distance clues. (Myopia) Arrows point toward the region borders closest to the clue. If a cell is clued by an arrow, then all possible arrows are given for that cell.
- Region 2: Length clues. (Loop 12) Arrow-tips touch the longest straight segments consisting of region borders that share an edge with the clue cell. If a cell is clued by an arrow, then all possible arrows are given for that cell.
- Region 3: Counting clues. Arrows point in directions with the most region borders. If a cell is clued by an arrow, then all possible arrows are given for that cell.
Example image to demonstrate what a completed grid may look like.
Solution code: Row 7 from left to right; "D" for distance, "L" for length, and "C" for counting. (For the example image, the solution code would be LLLLCDDC.)
Comments
on 18. October 2025, 12:08 by opel
Genius puzzle! Taught me some very interesting properties of 3-way yin yangs
on 17. October 2025, 11:28 by MagnusJosefsson
Amazing puzzle! Brilliant concept as well as execution, a joy to solve!
on 16. October 2025, 02:14 by MaizeGator
Leave it to Shintaro to conjure up new connectivity theory (new to me, at least)
on 15. October 2025, 22:47 by Agent
Great puzzle that makes you think about connectivity in a different way! The solution path was also very precise.
on 15. October 2025, 21:33 by Christounet
A highlight of this 3rd round! Figuring out the first deductions was quite hard, but after the opening, it was very intuitive and not too hard for me. Thanks :)
on 15. October 2025, 20:19 by Silverbyte
Probably one of my favorite puzzles I've solved this year. Simply brilliant in the use of clues and minimalism and while I thought it was very hard, it was also extremely satisfying
on 15. October 2025, 18:23 by yttrio
Simply fantastic with great interactions between the rule sets! This was my favorite puzzle of the round.
