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This is my first slitherlink puzzle. I made it myself. Feedback is appreciated! (I hope this one has a unique solution, unlike my other past puzzles, wink).

Rules of Slitherlink (taken from Nikoli):

  1. Connect adjacent dots with vertical or horizontal lines to make a single loop.
  2. The numbers indicate how many lines surround it, while empty cells may be surrounded by any number of lines.
  3. The loop never crosses itself and never branches off.
  4. Extra rule: The question marks indicate any number more than 0.

Here is the puzzle.

enter image description here

And here is a handy puzz.link, which is a playable version of the puzzle online.

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  • $\begingroup$ Why the question marks? $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Mar 18, 2021 at 10:56
  • $\begingroup$ Because I need to show that the snake passes by those squares $\endgroup$ Mar 18, 2021 at 11:45
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Ah, I see, so ? means >0. But do you need those? It looks like from the nearby 3 and 0 that that will have to be true. $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Mar 18, 2021 at 11:50
  • $\begingroup$ I needed them for a good title, as in a ? couple kissing each other $\endgroup$ Mar 18, 2021 at 11:51
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, okay, fair enough. $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Mar 18, 2021 at 11:52

1 Answer 1

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Solution:

slitherlink solution
It is a pretty easy Slitherlink, many basic techniques can are applied. (yes, it has a unique solution.)

Explanation:

Starting with the most basic one, mark the lines around 0's as X's, and if a point has only one direction to go (e.g. the 2 touching corners in 2 adjacent 0's), mark that corresponding part as X. After that, draw the lines in the numbers that have enough X's surrounding it.
slitherlink progress 1

Notice a 2 in the corner. There are 2 possible ways to draw the lines:
solving method
We can deduce that 2 lines can be drawn that must be going away from 2 at the border (highlighted in red). We can draw more lines using Slitherlink logic:
slitherlink progress 2

A little bit more logic:
slitherlink progress 3

A bit of a tricky part. Notice the point marked in bold. If the line moves to east (orange), it would create another line surrounding it, which is a contradiction.
If the line moves to south (blue), the resulting line becomes a dead-end, since it cannot access the other loop segments to the right.
enter image description here
Concluding that the line moves west and using some more basic logic, the Slitherlink is complete.
completed

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  • $\begingroup$ Congrats! You answered this in less than an hour after the puzzle was posted! Please add an explanation of how you got the solution, then the checkmark is all yours! ;) $\endgroup$ Mar 18, 2021 at 9:44
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ And the check is yours! $\endgroup$ Mar 18, 2021 at 12:20

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