Puzzle 300 (Loop of Death) [Unique]

This is a Loop of Death puzzle, a unique type. Almost all of your favorite (and unfavorite) loop puzzles have been combined into a single type. Detailed rules, along with an example, follow below the image and comments.

Puzzle 300

(Click for larger size)
3/20/2011 5:22 AM ET – Fixed a goof in the far bottom right corner that resulted in no solutions by a minor change to the regions. You probably found this contradiction if you made any progress at all in that area. My apologies.

As far as my marathons/unique puzzles go, my guess is this is probably tied for the easiest – size has something to do with that – but I could be completely off in either direction. Of course, this still means it is going to be really hard.

Grid size is 29 by 29 squares. This means 30 by 30 for the vertex clues, although I never used any of the edges. From that, I’m sure some of you are going to figure out what puzzle I paid homage to in constructing this one, but I’ll leave to you all to guess.

Puzzle 200 (Nikoli Octathlon) [Unique]

Before I get to the rules and the puzzle itself, I’d like to say this first. I understand this puzzle is not for everyone, with some very complex rules and an absolutely enormous level of challenge. But if you’ve come here to enjoy puzzles, you would be missing out by avoiding this one. The solution to this puzzle is a sequence of pure logic, probably with more variety than almost any other grid-based logic puzzle there is, involving virtually no thinking ahead at all. I believe that anyone who perseveres to the end of this puzzle will feel very well rewarded for their efforts. Best of luck.

Now, puzzle 200: