This was the 12th Yajilin puzzle from my somewhat recent LMI contest, Yajilin Yacht. A solution video for the contest puzzle can be found on the contest page. Additionally, the first puzzle I made for this spot, also themed around paired clues, can be found as a bonus puzzle below.
This was my other difficulty mis-step. I knew this puzzle was hard, but what I didn't anticipate was just how much harder it was than everything that came before, and by the time I realized it was too late to do anything about it. That said, this is a fantastic puzzle that, had I placed it a bit later (maybe swapping with 14) or built to it slightly better (maybe using the alternate version of 8 as 11, or making a new hard 10x10) would have been an excellent addition to the series. As it is, solve counts dropped from ~250 a puzzle to just under 200 a puzzle here and never recovered. DNFs went from a max of 27 (Breezy Street) to 71. Clearly, too much of a difficulty spike. Sorry everyone!
The original puzzle was somehow even harder - nicknamed "Lightbulb Moment", it could have worked in the contest. Though I was aware of the potential issues and ultimately decided that I wanted to try for a less difficulty spike puzzle for number 12. Too bad I failed at that goal later, but on the other hand, you get two puzzles to enjoy now.
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