The Thing
(Published on 16. October 2022, 04:48 by mathpesto)
In anticipation of Halloween, here's my second horror movie-themed puzzle! It's based on my favorite film of all time, John Carpenter's 1982 cult classic The Thing. Comments and ratings are much appreciated, and please check out my other puzzles here. Feel free to post a hidden comment below or message me on Discord if you'd like any help! Enjoy!
100,000 years ago, a UFO crash landed in Antarctica. Norwegian researchers discovered the site in 1982 and accidentally revived the frozen passenger upon bringing it back to their lab. The Thing murdered a crew member and then assimilated him in order to kill off the others. It has now imitated one of their dogs and is making its way to Outpost #31, where a U.S. crew might meet the same fate...
Rules:
Normal Sudoku rules apply.
Negators: Once in each row, column, and box, the Thing assimilates a number, thereby negating it (e.g. if the Thing is in R5C7 and the cell appears to contain a 3, its actual value is –3).
Region Sum, Thermo, Whispers, and Quads: Values on the blue line have the same sum in each box the line is in. Values along a thermo increase from the bulb to the end. Adjacent values on a green line differ by 5 or more. Numbers in a circle appear once in the four surrounding cells; they may be genuine (positive) or they may be the Thing (negative).
Snake: To successfully escape, you must travel from the now destroyed Outpost #31 (R2C2) to the helicopter (R8C8). Your path is one cell wide and may not go outside of Antarctica's boundary (blue line). The path may not contain nor be orthogonally adjacent to any of the Thing's cells. Adjacent values on the escape route differ by 5 or more.
Solve:
Solution code: Row 8 (left to right) and Column 7 (top to bottom) (18 digits, no spaces)
Comments
on 15. February 2023, 14:48 by KaiserGagius
Quite a satisfying little puzzle. Loved the pathing colouring and the back-and-forth logic changes between the individual rules.
on 3. December 2022, 03:27 by Selenotropism
Very fun puzzle and theme! snakes are the best :)
on 1. November 2022, 21:50 by michelkraemer
All of my favourite rules in one puzzle, wrapped into a beautiful and funny (horror) story! Amazing! Thank you so much!
on 1. November 2022, 10:08 by apiyo
Beautiful stuff Math Pesto, had a great tie solving :)
on 29. October 2022, 12:15 by ddx2407
That was very fun! Thank you. :)
on 16. October 2022, 20:50 by Nordy
Phenomenal! Straight to my favorites
on 16. October 2022, 13:57 by DJV
A beautiful puzzle to look at AND to solve!
