RAT RUN 21: Friendly
(Eingestellt am 14. Januar 2026, 01:00 Uhr von marty_sears)
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- AIM OF EXPERIMENT: Finkz and Phinx must both reach the cupcakes by finding a path through the maze. The paths must not visit any cell more than once, cross themselves or each other, or pass through any thick maze walls. The paths may not share cells except for where they meet at the cupcake cell.
- As well as moving orthogonally, Finkz and Phinx may move diagonally if there's a 2x2 space in which to do so, but may never pass diagonally through a round wall-spot on the corner of a cell.
- BLACKCURRANTS: If two digits are joined by a blackcurrant, one is double the other.
- GRAPES: If two digits are joined by a grape, they have a difference of at least 5.
- FORBIDDEN DOORS: If two digits are joined by a red X, they sum to 10. Finkz and Phinx may not pass directly through a red X.
- TEST CONSTRAINT: In this experiment, a cell may only be visited by Finkz or Phinx if its digit matches its row number, column number or box number. (Boxes are numbered 1-9 in normal reading order from top left to bottom right.)
Lösungscode: Digits in row 3 NOT visited by either rat, from left to right
Kommentare
am 5. Februar 2026, 02:10 Uhr von ongel
I'm so glad I stuck with this and it was so rewarding making it through! my first successful rat run but definitely won't be the last :)
am 27. Januar 2026, 01:37 Uhr von EMCaoloft
A thing of beauty <3
am 20. Januar 2026, 07:42 Uhr von rhyrhy
80 minutes, even with some hints. I should try once again without any hints. Always thanks for beautiful puzzles!
am 19. Januar 2026, 17:15 Uhr von extremelypuzzled
We are so back, thank you!
am 18. Januar 2026, 19:00 Uhr von BG03
Only Marty's sense of humour can make Finkz and Phinx so ridiculously evenly matched!
Thanks for working season 3 - this series is the undisputed crown jewel of LMD!
am 17. Januar 2026, 01:37 Uhr von ChristopherStanlake
Oh we are so back!
am 17. Januar 2026, 00:43 Uhr von MikeMeech
Welcome to the party Phinx!
am 16. Januar 2026, 22:59 Uhr von goldpuffle
So... which rat is which?
am 16. Januar 2026, 21:07 Uhr von wuc
Brilliant start. 3.5* to me. Hungry for more thx.
am 16. Januar 2026, 19:09 Uhr von Klausku
Beautiful and brilliant. Perfect start of season 3. Can‘t wait until copyrat comes out. Thanks Marty!
am 16. Januar 2026, 18:32 Uhr von eladv
This was so much fun!! The first set of deductions (which I wasn't spoiler here, but I will write in the hidden comments) was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. And we even got a more-intricate version of it deeper into the puzzle! This test constraint was a perfect match to the two-rats puzzle. I'm so stoked for the season, this is going to be grand!
am 16. Januar 2026, 17:08 Uhr von ufdigga
I'm so happy to see Finkz is back!
am 15. Januar 2026, 23:41 Uhr von VolpeRosso
So excited that these are back - just what is needed to distract from 2026 <3 Some wonderful logic, especially a step in the middle when I was *certain* it was impossible until I saw the "one little trick". Thanks so much, Marty! <3
(Edit: I am, however, slightly apprehensive about the phrase "this concluding phase" in the Experiment text... However, all good things must come to an end, and I'm sure Marty will come up with something equally delightful for his next long form project!)
am 15. Januar 2026, 16:58 Uhr von olc
my first rat run! very satisfying but had to restart twice because i messed up the logic along the way...
am 15. Januar 2026, 12:07 Uhr von mscha
Finkz is back! And Phinx! Yay!
Very tough start of series 3, definitely 5 stars for me. But (as always) very nice!
am 15. Januar 2026, 11:20 Uhr von davidz32z
Love love love! Took me awhile to get back in the mindset, can't wait for the rest of the phase <3
am 15. Januar 2026, 05:21 Uhr von etoler
I'm really trying hard not to cry about the lonely Sudoku rat who finally met a long-awaited friend. Unfortunately, I'm a sucker, so it's a battle I'm destined to lose.
am 15. Januar 2026, 01:46 Uhr von Atticus837
A beautiful way to return to the series, and a lovely introduction for Phinx!
Can't wait for the next one.
am 15. Januar 2026, 00:21 Uhr von Ratfinkz
Loved it!!! So worth the wait :)
Glad I solved by myself too and ignored those people haha
Also... that picture at the bottom is adorable!
am 14. Januar 2026, 23:59 Uhr von Flinty
Very nice! :)
am 14. Januar 2026, 21:08 Uhr von blackjackfitz
Huzzah!
am 14. Januar 2026, 20:11 Uhr von Calvinball
Triumphant return to the series. Also mad respect to marty because at some point he's going to have to update the graphics on over 60 lmd puzzle pages for this lol.
Marty: haha that is starting to take longer than actually designing the puzzles
am 14. Januar 2026, 19:55 Uhr von dzamie
Woo, new rat run! Good to see Finkz is doing well, and remains friendly with her new friend.
am 14. Januar 2026, 19:20 Uhr von bboom
Lovely to have a new set of rat runs, and this one held up the tradition of looking fairly impossible at the start, and still solving in a very reasonable time anyway.
Also Phinx is clearly the cuter looking one!
am 14. Januar 2026, 18:45 Uhr von vfig
twice as many rats, twice as hard to get started (or so it seemed to my sleepy brain). not my favourite constraint type but an excellent choice thematically. super excited for the continuation of the series!
am 14. Januar 2026, 18:41 Uhr von CorpJigsQuand
Harder than expected. Then realized that the non-black dots are green and nothing has to be consecutive...i would be a terrible rat.
am 14. Januar 2026, 15:56 Uhr von nunc
Hard, but beautiful. Thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to the next puzzles!
am 14. Januar 2026, 14:48 Uhr von Exigus
Delightful. Thanks!
am 14. Januar 2026, 14:31 Uhr von Franjo
Welcome back, Finkz and Phinx! I’m so happy to meet you again. Thank you very much, Marty, for creating and sharing another episode of the most popular puzzle-series the world has ever seen.
am 14. Januar 2026, 14:19 Uhr von Myfyr MJ
That was great fun. Can’t wait to see what Simon makes of this one.
am 14. Januar 2026, 14:08 Uhr von QuintusScaevola
These puzzles are just an absolute delight. Thank you Marty.
am 14. Januar 2026, 13:58 Uhr von Tortugo
I am just getting started, and I’m not sure if the paths are allowed to be “tangent” to one another. For example, can path 1 enter a cell from the left and exit up, while path 2 enters the same cell from the right and exits down? I think the rules as stated do technically prohibit this but one could argue they don’t.
Anyway I am so glad Finkz et al. are back and I can’t wait to struggle through this season.
Marty: thanks for the feedback, I have tweaked the wording of the rules very slightly which should hopefully clarify things
Tortugo: thanks for the rule clarification, and so sorry for the spam… I wasn’t refreshing the page intentionally, so I assume it has something to do with the way my phone’s browser loads up all my open tabs every time I reopen the app.
Oh and the puzzle was as beautiful and fun as ever.
am 14. Januar 2026, 12:07 Uhr von raaaaa
Great puzzle! But I found a little bug, did you forget to change the link about 21 in the previous puzzle? I tried to return to this puzzle through other previous puzzles but failed.
Marty: Yes I haven't gone back yet and updated all the links in previous puzzles. The bigger the series gets, the longer that takes!
am 14. Januar 2026, 10:40 Uhr von alexsmart
> So, who is who?
Maybe the big reveal at the end of this series would be that the rats are, in fact, indistinguishable quantum particles like photons (excitations of the same underlying RAT field perhaps) so the question would be meaningless.
am 14. Januar 2026, 06:59 Uhr von vfig
cannot wait to solve this one tomorrow morning!
am 14. Januar 2026, 05:56 Uhr von Angara
So, who is who? Thanks for this brilliant!
am 14. Januar 2026, 03:42 Uhr von KelleyCook
I'm on team Phinx!
am 14. Januar 2026, 02:35 Uhr von chinesemaster
So brilliant! Thanks so much for bringing Finkz back!
am 14. Januar 2026, 01:18 Uhr von sujoyku
Yay, Rat Run is back! Thank you for the new season, Marty! You start it off in style: with another banger of a puzzle.
