Zen Puzzle Garden: Player's Guide

Unsolvable Configurations

Every time you rake a new section of sand, there is a chance that you have just made the puzzle unsolvable! It is useful to be able to quickly determine if this is the case so that you can go on to explore a different approach, rather than spending time on a red herring. Also, it means that you can rule out certain moves before you have made them, if you can see that you will produce one of the following patterns:

1. Rock Against a Flat Edge The most common way to leave the puzzle unsolvable is by raking in a straight line next to a lone rock. No matter how you approach the rock, you will always leave a rock in the corner (2) or a dead end (4).

2. Rock In The Corner Attempting to approach such a rock will always leave a dead end (4). Unless there are other nearby rocks, leaves or ornaments that allow you to rake around the corner, this configuration is unsolvable.

3. Odd Width Section Unless a rectangular section of sand is very shallow, it must be an even number of squares wide. Any attempts to rake such a section will eventually produce a dead end (4).

4. Dead End All monks who enter shall perish.

Tip: Sometimes it is a good idea to make a move just to see what it looks like, and then press 'U' to undo if you get a tingling sensation of dread.

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