The Doppit Almanac · No. 24

Wellit, a daily distance puzzle

Dig wells at each crop’s exact distance

What it is

Wellit closes the almanac at No. 24, a Doppit original about crops, wells and honest measurement. The field is scattered with crops, and each crop states the walking distance to its nearest well. You dig, pace it out, and dig again until every statement on the board comes true.

Distance is counted in steps along the grid, and the crops are pedantic about it. A crop marked 5 wants its nearest well at five steps exactly: not four, which crowds it, and not six, which leaves it thirsty.

How it plays

The digging rights are strict.

• Dig anywhere, but nothing may sit nearer to a crop than its number.
• A plain number means the nearest well is exactly that many steps away; a < number means nearer than that.
• No two wells touch, not even diagonally.
• A counter says how many wells the field holds; dig exactly that many.
• Tap a square to dig, tap again to clear, and switch tools to rule squares out.

The difficulties

Three parishes come up for water daily. Easy is an eight-wide field with six wells, irrigated in thirty seconds to a minute. Medium is ten wide with eight wells and takes one to three minutes of pacing distances. Hard is twelve wide with twelve wells, three to six minutes of drought-grade deduction. Expert works that same twelve-wide field, but hard sets no floor on supposing at all and expert sets one at four: four rounds of supposing a well and following the chain. A new field is drawn every day, and nobody meters the water. Expert is off the daily round, for practice.

Nearby in the almanac: Campit, Springit and Lightit