Primesssweeper: Epictia
(Published on 10. March 2022, 17:17 by Xenonetix)
Thanks to grkles, MagnusJosefsson, Phistomefel, and SenatorGronk for their inspiration for this puzzle!
- Every digit from 1 to 9 appears once in every row, column, and region. 9 regions are to be determined. Every region is a set of 9 orthogonally connected cells.
- A 36-cell snake is made up of exactly 4 regions. This snake never reconnects to itself, including diagonally. R9C2 is the head of the snake.
- All circled digits indicate the number of cells in the surrounding 3x3 area (including themselves) that are part of the snake.
- All circled digits also indicate the number of prime digits (2, 3, 5, & 7) in the surrounding 3x3 area (including themselves).
- All circles matching both of these rules are given.
Cracking The Cryptic (recommended, with answer check)
Penpa+ (with answer check)
F-Puzzles (not recommended)
Here's an easier example puzzle to demonstrate this ruleset:
Cracking The Cryptic (with answer check)
Penpa+(with answer check)
Probably my toughest puzzle so far, but really satisfying to solve! 😄 Any feedback and comments welcome!
Solution code: Full snake from R9C2 to the tail (36 digits)
Comments
on 9. May 2024, 14:25 by Agent
Beautiful puzzle! I think it was a high 4 stars, but the solution code bumps it up to a low 5 stars.
on 5. November 2022, 03:35 by peacherwu2
Genius setup! Enjoyed every small deductions along the way! Thank you so much.
on 5. November 2022, 03:35 by peacherwu2
Genius setup! Enjoyed every small deductions along the way! Thank you so much.
on 12. October 2022, 22:52 by ONeill
Such an incredible puzzle. Loved all the different bits of logic. Thanks!
on 11. July 2022, 21:42 by lerroyy
Very nice puzzle! The middle solve was sooo hard. But after it, it went smoothly again and was a fun ending.
on 11. July 2022, 18:17 by KNT
So good, but so, so hard.
on 22. April 2022, 00:40 by Bootenks
Jesus, that was a tough puzzle, but very enoyable. Thumbs up, for creating and sharing such a lovely piece of art.
on 8. April 2022, 19:57 by Niverio
Very nice puzzle! Even though the solve takes a long time, every single deduction is very interactive and rewarding, prompting the solver to push further!
Also very intuitable puzzle. Would solve it in an hour if I just trusted mine :P
on 28. March 2022, 21:07 by Christounet
Pheeeewwww ! That was something challenging for me. Tried that one a few weeks ago, then got stuck after finding the nice break in. Picked it up today and the solution just popped in front of me ! So nice ! Thanks for thiq beautiful puzzle !
on 27. March 2022, 07:03 by Silverstep
Love the negative constraint in puzzles like this, it's just so satisfying.
on 15. March 2022, 09:12 by MagnusJosefsson
Fantastic puzzle! Having to keep in mind simultaneously the snake logic and the prime logic provides an interesting and unusual challenge. Also very well set, consistently challenging but with a fair logical solution path.
on 12. March 2022, 22:34 by SenatorGronk
Boy, that was brutal. Great job xeno, and thanks for the shout out. It’s humbling to be mentioned in the same sentence as the others. Cheers!
on 12. March 2022, 13:46 by kmoter
lovely, thanks
on 12. March 2022, 07:56 by Elliptical
Hard puzzle with a complex long and narrow logic path. What a ride. Thanks for that very enjoyable puzzle.
on 12. March 2022, 06:04 by harrison
Absolutely absurd construction. How did you do that?? What a journey
on 11. March 2022, 14:42 by kolot
Wonderful puzzle! I loved it. I agree with the comments of Tilberg. Several types of logic is used throughout the grid. It is a very hard but very satisfying puzzle.
on 11. March 2022, 13:38 by Tilberg
Phew, not easy at all. I liked how I had to constantly shift between snake logic, snake cage logic, non-snake cage logic, snake-counting cell logic, prime-counting cell logic and - last but not least - sudoku logic. Challenging! Thank you.
on 11. March 2022, 00:26 by marcmees
amazing chaos construction puzzle. Thanks.
on 10. March 2022, 19:13 by Xenonetix
Whoops, HTML formatting error. Thanks, Bankey!
on 10. March 2022, 18:16 by grkles
I appreciate all the help you gave while solving, this was insane and beautiful :D
on 10. March 2022, 18:14 by Bankey
The rule about primes seems to be incompletely mentioned in the text above (though it becomes clear from the given example).
