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Hello, new here, managed to struggle to almost the end, but I wonder, am I allowed to ask if the "4 cells" are contiguous? I've got one (upside down) possibility and two other more spaced-out versions (one H one V) so waaay too many ambiguities for my liking!

^ bumping to top

Thank you all for the kind words (and words of frustration, but that does somewhat fuel a setter...).

I'm glad it's gone down well as a puzzle, and glad that the theme has quite predictably also gone down well to boot!

Also, I have set a carte blanche prior (in the IQ) and I did honestly entertain the idea, but thought better of it ukridge :^)

They don’t have to be contiguous, as it’s not specified, but as it turns out they are.

Check - congratulations on a very enjoyable (and challenging) puzzle.
I was temporarily side tracked by the appearance in the grid of two groups of 5 contiguous cells which include all the letters of the last word of step 4. I wondered for a while if they needed to be rearranged to fulfil the step.
The chances of these five letters apperaring randomly in contiguous cells only once would appear to be small, but twice seems very unlikely indeed.
Was this a deliberate red herring. If so it makes construction of the puzzle even more impressive.

Finding this very tough this week. I have about 50% gridfill and think I can see theme and the top row.
I don't want to give up, so m asking for a helpful steer on 1d, 14d and 33a to keep me trying.

Lumen, it's difficult to not be too steering but I'll have a go. 14d concealed is a containment indicator. 13a heart is a sort of containment indicator and black is the usual. Don't forget the missing letters. One is integral one is part of definition. 1d involves a version of slab that might be a penultimate resting place...in a hospital!

Thanks for that, I now have top half complete. It was 33a I wanted, if you have a broad hint for that one.