Murder on the Orient Express - killer sudoku
(Published on 18. July 2020, 00:07 by KevinCelis)
Normal sudoku rules apply
Killer sudoku rules apply: In the killer cages (cages bordered with a dashed line), the number in the upper left corner indicates the respective sum of all digits in this cage. Digits may not repeat in the killer cages.
The Orient Express leaves the train station on the left side of the board and travels across the grid to the train station on the top of the grid:
- The train passes exactly 18 cells on its route
- These 18 cells contain the digits 1-9 exactly twice
- The train may not pass the same cell twice
- The train may only travel orthogonally, not diagonally
- The train may only change direction on the numbers 1 or 9
- The train may not change directions on the cells with an arrow and must be travelling in the direcion of the arrow in that cell
- Whenever the train passes through a killer cage, all the cells it passes over in this cage must contain an even digit
Finding the train's route should be relatively straight-forward, but the cages should still be a bit challenging, so I'm marking this as 4 stars for now, even though I'm not entirely sure about how difficult it will really be.
This one took a long time to make, and in the very end I got stuck and had to add a single digit to make it work. I decided to publish the puzzle anyway and made that digit a 1 to mark my failure haha.
I might come at this idea again later and try to make a version without given digits.
Solution code: the digits on the train's route starting on the left side of the board and ending at the top.
Comments
on 11. May 2023, 20:24 by Ryx
Splendid puzzle. I had it on my observe list and forgot about it, until someone else recently solved it. I think its a great example of subjective difficulty. Some puzzles you need real "thinking outside the box" brain and others like this, just need a lot of math and concentration.
There is a bit of spotting "what's important next" after the break in, but there is always something more if you look close enough.
on 13. June 2022, 12:46 by ICHTUES
A very cool killer puzzle, thanks!
on 19. July 2020, 14:24 by zhergan
Nicely designed! Thanks..
on 18. July 2020, 08:58 by KevinCelis
added penpa link
on 18. July 2020, 04:36 by Hareeb
This is a really nice killer by itself and the train adds a lot of good logic.
