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Description[]

Tapa is a binary determination puzzle in which the cells in a grid are split into either shaded or unshaded.

Rules[]

The objective is to divide the grid into shaded and unshaded cells, subject to the following rules:

  1. Clue cells cannot be shaded and indicate the number of consecutive cells shaded around them. There must be at least one unshaded cell between shaded regions. ? is wild and can stand for any non-zero value.
  2. There must be one contiguous area of shaded cells, which is not allowed to contain 2x2 areas.

Example[]

A standard 10x10 tapa and its solution.

Tapa Example
Tapa Solution












Variants[]

Unless otherwise indicated, standard tapa rules apply to all variants.

Pata: Clues indicate the number of consecutive cells unshaded around them. There must be at least one shaded cell between unshaded regions.

Odd-Even Tapa: Clues indicate the number of odd and even consecutively shaded cells around them, but not the values.

Cross Out Tapa: All clues have exactly one extra number that needs crossing out before solving.

Tapa Borders: The lines between some cells is either missing or boldened. Pairs of cells with no border between them must both be shaded or unshaded. Pairs of cells with a boldened line must contain one shaded and one unshaded cell.

Tapa Distiller: Clues from multiple grids have been combined into one. These must be sorted back into seperate grids and solved.

Compass Tapa: A star and arrows also appear in the grid. There must be an unbroken path of shaded cells from the arrows to the star. In the case of paths leading from different directions, all arrows are given.

Tapa Filler: Enter numbers into cells. Clues indicate the values of surrounding numbers which occur the same number of times consecutively. Identical groups cannot wrap around a clue cell. All numbers are connected upon completion.

Tapa Loop: Shaded cells form a single, branchless loop upon completion.

Unique Clues Tapa: No two clues may be the same. Asterisks stand for a nonzero amount of question marks.

Total False: Every clue is lying; both in the count of consecutively shaded cells around it and the lengths of those shaded cells. For example, a clue of 3 could indicate a clue of 2,4 but not 4 (with the same count of consecutively shaded cells) or of 2,3 (with a length of shaded cells of 3).

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