Creek (known in some puzzle communities as Kuroshiki) is an elegant binary puzzle from Nikoli where players carve a river of white cells around numbered obstacles.

• Intersection Clues: Numbers located at grid intersections specify how many of the 4 surrounding cells are black. An intersection with a 4 immediately forces all 4 neighbors black; a 0 forces all 4 white.
• Continuous Creek: All unshaded white cells must form a single, unbroken orthogonally connected network. No isolated puddles are permitted!
• No 2x2 Black Pools: Black cells cannot form a solid 2x2 square anywhere on the board.

Key Deductions:

Creek Bottlenecks: Pay close attention to narrow channels. If shading a cell would cut off a white cell or disconnect two sections of the creek, that cell must immediately be white. Combine this with intersection clues to force black cells around 2s and 3s without strangling the river!