3
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Puzzle attribution: Me
:)


Background


So as you might or might not know, I have been studying the minimum number of clues needed to force a unique solution in Hidato for variously sized boards. I recently had come up with a 5x5 Hidato with 5 clues, although it was found to have multiple solutions.

Yesterday, @Bubbler was able to find a 5x5 Hidato puzzle that had 4 clues while having a unique solution, and 14 hours ago, they also found a 5x5 Hidato puzzle with a unique solution and only single-digit clues.

This morning, I managed to create a 4x5 Hidato puzzle again with 4 clues, which I verified to have a unique solution first by hand and then through @Bubbler's Picat program. Can you figure out the solution?


The puzzle


Goal of Hidato:

Fill in a grid with a series of consecutive numbers that connect each other orthogonally or diagonally

To get the green checkmark $\color{green}✓$:

Solve the following Hidato puzzle

The puzzle:

enter image description here

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1

1 Answer 1

5
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     1  17 10 9  8
     16 2  18 11 7
     15 3  12 19 6
     14 13 4  5  20
 

First, fill in the 19 (there is only one solution which reaches 16)

     1  .  .  .  .
     16 .  .  .  .
     .  .  .  19 .
     .  .  .  5  20
 

Then, fill in the 18 and the 17 in order to avoid cutting apart the 1 and the 5 or hemming in the 16

     1  17 .  .  .
     16 .  18 .  .
     .  .  .  19 .
     .  .  .  5  20
 

Then, we need the diagonal between 18 and 19 to give the 16 a path to escape, so we can fill in the 3 and the 4

     1  17 .  .  .
     16 2  18 .  .
     .  3  .  19 .
     .  .  4  5  20
 

Using numbers with only one empty neighbor:

     1  17 .  .  .
     16 2  18 11 7
     15 3  12 19 6
     14 13 4  5  20
 

There is obviously only one solution for the final three numbers.

     1  17 10 9  8
     16 2  18 11 7
     15 3  12 19 6
     14 13 4  5  20
 

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