A walk after dark

Question

This is a Palisade (or n-Cells) puzzle. The rules are:

• Thicken some of the squares' sides so the thick borders outline cells. One such cell comprises just one square; one cell comprises precisely two squares; one cell comprises three squares; and so on up to a ten-square cell.
• Any square with a number in it indicates how many of its sides are thickened. Note that if the square is along a side of the entire diagram, then that side counts as one of the thickened sides.
• Thickened sides can be used only as parts of cell outlines: no thickened side can have both of its sides in the same cell.

Note that this is among the easier Palisade puzzles. I don't recommend it if you're experienced with the genre and looking for a challenge.

Answer 1

Step 1:

First, draw all the obvious non-borders.

Step 2:

There is an area that must be at least 10 cells; this must be the 10-cell area. Bordering it off traps a 1-cell area. Now no other areas can be 1-cell, so we can draw some non-border lines.

Step 3:

The 9-cell area has been identified. Drawing its borders threatens to trap some 1-cell areas, so more non-border lines can be drawn. Also, a few 2 clues have been satisfied, so they can have more non-border lines drawn.

Step 4:

That area in the bottom left corner must be at least 8-cell; it already has 7 cells and its unsatisfied 2 clue (R5C5) must have one more non-border line, so another cell will connect. Therefore no other areas can be 8-cell. The 7-cell and 6-cell areas are forced on the top.

Step 5:

The 5-cell and 4-cell areas are forced.

Step 6:

The bottom-left area's last 2 (R5C5) can't connect to the right any more, as that would make a 9-area. Therefore we can resolve it and finish its area.

Step 7/solution:

The 2 clue in R5C6 already has 2 borders and so must have a non-border line up. This forces it to be part of a 3-cell area, which forces the 2-cell area, and the puzzle is solved.