King-Sized Mines

Solution

by Jasmine Wang, Kaity Du, and Lumia Neyo

Tech: Brian Shimanuki

This looks like a Minesweeper puzzle except that we are given 1x1 and 3x3 mines to place. We are also given a picture that means that red clues cannot be adjacent to 1x1 mines, so they must count the number of adjacent 3x3 mines. We also know that they must count entire 3x3 mines as single mines because it is impossible to place a 3x3 mine where only one square of the mine is adjacent to the bottom left 1.

After placing 3x3 mines in the grid to satisfy all the red numbers, we can also eliminate most squares of the grid from containing 1x1 mines since they are adjacent to a red clue.

We notice that the 4 is black, and it is impossible for it to border 4 3x3 mines, which suggests that it must border a 1x1 mine. The only available space for a 1x1 mine is to its right, and we see that 4 of its surrounding cells are taken up by mines, 3 of which are taken by a 3x3 mine. This means that black numbers count each individual cell of a 3x3 mine as a separate mine.

The completed grid is shown below.

X icon is for your convenience only and is not graded.
4
x
1
3
3
?
1
?
3
1
0