Diagramless-ception

Solution

by Ariel Uy

Answer:
MANCHESTER UNITED

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Solving the Mini Grids

We see that the puzzle consists of a 25x25 grid, which is broken down into smaller 5x5 grids. There are many “subpuzzles” to solve and one main puzzle. We surmise that each subpuzzle refers to one of the 5x5 mini grids, but we don’t know where to place them within the larger puzzle yet.

We begin by solving some individual mini grids following diagramless crossword rules. However, we soon realize that something strange is happening - the across and down words seem to share a lot of letters, but they don’t fit together in a typical way. Also, there are some 6 letter words, which would not fit in a 5x5 grid.

Eventually, we have two key realizations:

  1. The black squares of each mini crossword form a letter.
  2. That letter occurs exactly once in each word in the mini, and it needs to be removed in order to fit in the grid.

One possible break-in point is Subpuzzle 13:

The across answers are ROCK, TARO, and IOTA. The downs are ROTI, COAT, and OKRA. We notice that many of the letters are shared, and if we removed the letter O from each word, we can fit all the words into this grid:

R
C
K
T
A
R
I
T
A

Additionally, if we placed these letters into a 5x5 grid, we could black out the edges to form the letter O.

!
!
!
!
!
!
1
R
2
C
3
K
!
!
4
T
A
R
!
!
5
I
T
A
!
!
!
!
!
!

Once we know the two realizations, solving the rest of the minis becomes much easier. We can figure out what the common letter is, and use this as a hint on both solving the clues and finding the grid layout.  

Solving the Main Grid

After solving most of the minis, we take a look at the main clues and the main grid. We know there are only 14 minis, but 25 potential spaces for the minis in the main grid. We refer to the title, Diagramless-ception, and infer that we will need to “do it again” on the main grid.

Using a combination of:

We can determine the black squares of the main grid should form a C. We can now place all of the mini puzzles into the main grid in the given order, and confirm that these all form words when adding the letter C (CUSTOM, COMET, GECKO, etc). Note that it’s not necessary to have solved all of the minis in order to complete this step.

1
B
2
L
3
B
4
M
N
I
5
P
A
L
6
S
R
D
1
I
2
I
3
A
4
C
1
D
Y
2
C
3
T
1
A
2
C
1
A
5
D
E
T
A
D
4
M
N
3
C
U
O
2
V
I
3
R
U
6
E
G
E
S
5
B
N
D
4
A
I
4
A
5
A
G
7
A
E
R
T
5
H
6
A
S
E
6
T
A
R
U
E
6
L
K
E
7
I
N
T
S
7
E
T
1
O
2
O
N
1
Z
2
E
3
R
B
1
W
A
T
2
R
1
E
2
A
3
S
4
E
4
N
C
E
3
E
4
T
O
5
A
C
6
O
M
5
E
N
D
5
T
6
E
A
3
Y
A
R
S
7
R
U
8
R
O
7
A
T
E
9
H
E
10
M
E
1
D
I
1
I
N
2
S
E
2
O
L
F
1
U
N
D
2
R
N
3
S
I
1
R
2
C
3
K
R
A
D
4
E
E
L
4
T
A
R
E
3
L
E
3
V
I
D
O
5
O
6
E
L
5
I
T
A
4
E
L
7
A
S
S
1
T
2
O
B
W
3
D
4
D
5
A
6
T
O
7
P
O
E

Extraction

We line up the puzzle with the extraction grid. We will need to use letters from all 3 levels of this puzzle. The stars indicate individual letters, the yellow cells indicate a mini, and the green square indicates the main puzzle. Here we can see the puzzle grid with only the relevant letters highlighted:

M
N
H
E
E
R
U
N
I
T
D

Reading top to bottom, left to right, in the order that is specified:

★
M
🟨🟨
A
★
N
C
★
H
★
E
🟨🟨
S
🟨🟨
T
★
E
★
R
★
U
★
N
★
I
★
T
🟨🟨
E
★
D

We get the answer, MANCHESTER UNITED.

Appendix

Here are all of the clue answers.

Main

Across

  1. ??? - CLAPS
  2. ??? - COMET
  3. ??? - GECKO

Down

  1. ??? - CUSTOM
  2. ??? - CLOG
  3. ??? - CAME
  4. ??? - PECK

Subpuzzle 1

Across

  1. Light or flower follower - BULB
  2. San Francisco light rail - MUNI
  3. McCartney - PAUL
  4. Radical - SURD

Down

  1. Knocks into - BUMPS
  2. Relating to the moon - LUNAR
  3. Create - BUILD

Subpuzzle 2

Across

  1. Part of the pelvis, with crest - ILIAC
  2. Letter representing change - DELTA
  3. Latin laws - LEGES
  4. Warning alarm - ALERT

Down

  1. Perfect - IDEAL
  2. Feudal lord - LIEGE
  3. Modify - ALTER
  4. Home for a queen - CASTLE

Subpuzzle 3

Across

  1. Opposite of night - DAY
  2. One that meows - CAT
  3. Marching group - BAND
  4. Body of water - LAKE

Down

  1. Father - DAD
  2. Sin / cos - TAN
  3. Iron or Bat follower - MAN

Subpuzzle 4

Across

  1. Campaign donor grp. - PAC
  2. Drinking vessel - CUP
  3. Part of software that communicates to other software, abbr. - API
  4. Recurring state in a cycle - PHASE
  5. What a group might order at a bar - PINTS

Down

  1. Replicas - COPIES
  2. Before now - PAST
  3. Golden ratio - PHI
  4. Frying cookware - PAN

Subpuzzle 5

Across

  1. Corona follower - VIRUS
  2. Droop - SAG
  3. Sirius, e.g. - STAR
  4. Card game where you might find 3 purple ovals - SET

Down

  1. Month named after Roman emperor - AUGUST
  2. Common encryption algorithm, abbr. - RSA
  3. Used a chair - SAT

Subpuzzle 6

Across

  1. Additive identity - ZERO
  2. First word of a fairy tale - ONCE
  3. Inner, prefix - ENDO

Down

  1. Area - ZONE
  2. Subj. on goods and services - ECON
  3. Control-Y - REDO

Subpuzzle 7

Across

  1. Ariel, to Uranus - MOON
  2. Writer of this hunt, with 7-Across - TEAM
  3. See 5-Across - MATE

Down

  1. Angry crowd - MOB
  2. A puzzle that uses other puzzles - META
  3. Not wild, as an animal - TAME
  4. Gathered - MET

Subpuzzle 8

Across

  1. What the human body is mostly composed of - WATER
  2. Revolutions around the sun - YEARS

Down

  1. Flower referenced by Juliet - ROSE

Subpuzzle 9

Across

  1. Hot leaf drink - TEA
  2. Collection - SET
  3. Perform a part - ACT
  4. Male cat - TOM
  5. Ditch - RUT
  6. Decay - ROT
  7. Most common English word - THE
  8. NY art museum - MET

Down

  1. Where we live - EARTH
  2. Type of angle - ACUTE
  3. It brings heavy rain and lightning - STORM
  4. To show feelings - EMOTE

Subpuzzle 10

Across

  1. Make a hole - DIG
  2. Sport with a driver - GOLF
  3. Lower limb - LEG
  4. Hair paste - GEL

Down

  1. Alternate to radian - DEGREE
  2. What you get when the ball crosses the net - GOAL

Subpuzzle 11

Across

  1. Below - UNDER
  2. Moving picture - VIDEO

Down

  1. Make again - REDO

Subpuzzle 12

Across

  1. Octopus defense mechanism - INK
  2. Snowboard alternative - SKI
  3. Beam along the bottom of a boat - KEEL
  4. Antlered animal - ELK
  5. Pose a question - ASK

Down

  1. Family - KIN
  2. Abilities - SKILLS
  3. Search for - SEEK
  4. Tree producing acorns - OAK

Subpuzzle 13

Across

  1. What loses to paper - ROCK
  2. Purple boba flavor - TARO
  3. Greek letter which J is derived from - IOTA

Down

  1. Round flatbread - ROTI
  2. Warm jacket - COAT
  3. Vegetable commonly found in gumbo - OKRA

Subpuzzle 14

Across

  1. Grave - TOMB
  2. Unit of matter - ATOM
  3. The Raven, e.g. - POEM

Down

  1. Cut, as grass - MOW
  2. Soggy - DAMP
  3. Hemisphere shape - DOME
  4. Quarterback Brady - TOM