Dead End Drives [Nuri-Maze Variant]
(Published on 11. July 2026, 14:51 by wisty)
This is a collaboration with Isamook - the estimated difficulty is 4.5★ and we hope you enjoy it! :D
Thank you everyone who tested this! Especially Myxo, for helping us fix something in our first draft.
• Nuri-Maze: Shade some regions of cells to form a single connected unshaded path that may branch and dead end but cannot ever form a closed loop. No 2x2 can be entirely shaded (or unshaded). Symbols are always unshaded, and the path from S to G must contain all circles and no triangles.
• Variant: Every unshaded cell must have a path to at least one triangle that goes through no other symbols.
• For clarity, S and G are symbols, and a triangle cell itself is considered as satisfying the variant rule by default.
Solution code tip for Penpa+: You can highlight all of the cells of each type in "Sudoku" or "Number" mode, type U or S accordingly, then highlight the whole row and copy using Ctrl+C
Solution code: Row 13, using U for unshaded cells and S for shaded cells
Comments
on 27. July 2026, 09:59 by Christounet
Great puzzle! The connectivity deductions are awesome all the way through. Thanks :)
on 18. July 2026, 01:40 by dumediat
Incredible concept with even better execution, plus the perfect mix of difficulty and smoothness. What more can I say besides she dead my end until I drives?
on 12. July 2026, 23:57 by Bobuardo da Vinci
Really remarkable work! Slowly coming to realize all of the implications of this variant was awesome
on 12. July 2026, 15:35 by Agent
Great variant, very clever!
on 11. July 2026, 19:57 by yttrio
Fantastic puzzle with some incredible topology!
on 11. July 2026, 16:40 by Justalilguy
Great puzzle!
on 11. July 2026, 16:14 by Myxo
Awesome!
on 11. July 2026, 15:42 by isajo4002
It's an honor to be part of such a masterpiece!!!
