Nurikabe: The Twisty Corridors

Question

This puzzle is a Nurikabe. It is a little tougher than my previous one, which was designed for newer solvers, and it has a particularly squiggly solution that I found pleasing enough to post - hence the name! I hope you enjoy.

Rules of a Nurikabe (copied from my previous puzzle):

This is a Nurikabe puzzle. The goal is to paint some cells black so that the resulting grid satisfies the rules of Nurikabe:

• Numbered cells are white. (Think of them as "islands.")
• White cells are divided into regions, all of which contain exactly one number. The number indicates how many white cells there are in that region.
• Regions of white cells cannot be adjacent to one another, but they can touch at a corner.
• Black cells must all be orthogonally connected. (Think of them as "oceans.")
• There are no groups of black "ocean" cells that form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid.

Now, here is the puzzle:

And here is a puzz.link solver for your solving convenience.

Answer 1

Solution:

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New solver too! This is the first 'plain' nurikabe I've solved, and here's how to solve:

STEP 1:

Starting off just filling in the obvious clues

STEP 2:

The four top middle can only extend in one direction, and can be completed.

STEP 3:

Filling in all the 'unreachable' cells, and also noticing the five must extend diagonally to prevent a 2x2 bottom right

STEP 4:

The 3 bottom middle must extend at least one up to prevent a 2x2, and this lets us solve the 3 and the 5.

STEP 5:

The top right can be solved nice and easily now, and the rest is nearly complete! The 7 must also extend all the way round to prevent a 2x2.

FINAL STEP:

Finishing off the top left gives us the answer!