Introducing Slitherlink (loop the loop, takegaki, fences, dotty dilemma… you name it)

Another kind of puzzles that I’ve started creating recently… Slitherlink! These puzzles are also known under many different names. Slitherlink puzzles are not a Sudoku variant. They can be of any size and the rules are: 1. Connect the dots to form a single loop with no points of intersection. 2. The clues given tell you how many sides of each cell belong to the loop. In other words, how many lines there are around the number. If there is no number given, it is unknown (it doesn’t mean it’s zero). Solving techniques are numerous. I will soon start posting a series of solving methods. But here are a few tips: start with the corners and think. Also, always remember the rule number one: no intersections! This effectively means that each dot has either 0 or 2 lines coming out of it! It can’t have 1 because the loop must be, well, a loop – it must be closed. It can’t have 3 or 4 because that would be an intersection. So it must be 0 or 2. I’m still working on the difficulty. So your input on the difficulty of this puzzle is appreciated. I believe this one is relatively easy – I still haven’t implemented all solving methods. Slitherlink 13×13 for Monday, February 8, 2010.

(click to download or right-click to save the image!)

To see the solution to this puzzle click here
Enjoy and do comment, please! 🙂