GridWits
Hard tier Technique 12 of 18 Used by Smart Hint

Completion Pool

A cell touching an island one short of its size would finish it — and a finished island is walled in sea on every side. If that walling would trap a 2×2 pool, the cell can't be land after all: it's sea.

How it works

  1. 1The cell right of the 2 touches only that island, so land there would have to join it — finishing the island at exactly 2.
  2. 2A finished island is walled in by sea on every side, so the cells above and below the pair, and the one to its right, would all become water.
  3. 3Together with the two sea cells already in the top-left, that wall makes a 2×2 pool, which is illegal.
  4. 4So the cell could never have been land: it's sea.
2 4
  • Sea
  • Cells that establish the pattern
  • Where the conclusion lands
Next in the ladder Chokepoint →

If the only way to reach a cell is through one narrow gap, and going that way traps a 2×2 sea block, the gap must be land.