Crypto Japanese Cave with Indexers
(Published on 20. October 2022, 06:39 by KNT)
Shade some cells such that all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected, and all orthogonally connected groups of shaded cells touch the edge of the grid. The empty cells act as holes in the grid, connectivity is obstructed by these holes.
Clues outside the grid to the top and left indicate the sums of connected groups of either shaded or unshaded numbers in the respective row or column, in order, where numbers in cells with the opposite shading serve as delimeters between groups. Empty cells also serve as delimeters between groups. All the columns are for one of either shaded or unshaded, and all of the rows are for whichever type of shading the columns is not.
Clues to the right and bottom of the grid indicate that the Nth cell seen from the direction of the clue is the empty cell in the row or column shared with the clue.
The letters A to I replace numbers from 0 to 9, and no two letters may replace the same number. A question mark can be any number from 0 to 9, and for all clues, none may have a leading zero.
A 1-6 example is provided:
Solution code: Row 5, then Column 4, with X for empty cells
Comments
on 20. October 2023, 00:22 by Piatato
Great puzzle! I tried this a good while back, and failed it toward the end somehow. Not sure what went wrong then, it all worked brilliantly this time around. :)
on 3. September 2023, 17:21 by Snookerfan
Great puzzle again! A bit easier than number 2. Thank you
on 14. March 2023, 14:07 by Christounet
Excellent puzzle again ! That felt easier for me than the previous one, probably because I'm finally starting to understand how this ciphering madness works... Thanks !
on 2. March 2023, 06:49 by wisty
This puzzle is fantastic!!! The difficulty is consistent and fair and I really appreciate how thoroughly it uses both the cave rules and the block cells :)
on 10. January 2023, 00:29 by lerroyy
Great puzzle, thanks!
on 10. November 2022, 19:35 by KNT
Title
on 22. October 2022, 17:21 by AnnaTh
Can't get enough of your fantastic puzzles. I hope you will not run out of ideas so soon.
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this makes me really really happy, @AnnaTh. don't worry- I truly love setting and am lucky enough to have the free time to do it quite often, ideas are definitely still aplenty :)
on 21. October 2022, 22:26 by ibag
Great fun!
on 21. October 2022, 21:07 by KNT
Updated visuals: using "?" instead of "." for better visibility
on 21. October 2022, 11:09 by MagnusJosefsson
Great puzzle as always! It took me a while to get started on this one, then it became an exciting ride with a variety of cool logic.
on 21. October 2022, 04:23 by marcmees
you never disappoint (I suppose Niverio means). The opening was found quickly but the empty cell definitely complicated things hence forward. Nice. thanks.
on 20. October 2022, 21:34 by Niverio
Absolutely amazing. You never disappoint, and always come up with exciting things, KNT!
(Edited out "ceased to" from before disappoint because apparently I was having a brainfart while writing the comment... Thanks marc for pointing it out lol)
on 20. October 2022, 19:33 by Playmaker6174
Another spectacular and beautiful puzzle as always! The opening actually drained my mind for a long while before I started to notice something, then after that it's a long and smooth flow with plenty of lovely deductions ;)
on 20. October 2022, 13:51 by ONeill
This one flowed really nicely and I made a lot less mistakes than the other two. Hopefully that’s the same for the fourth!
on 20. October 2022, 11:58 by Jesper
Great puzzle! The empty cells really turn a lot of things on its head. Looking forward to #4 :)
on 20. October 2022, 10:12 by Vebby
Cool new twist, particularly enjoyed the connectivity logic in this one. I'm all for a #4 too! ;)
on 20. October 2022, 06:50 by polar
Found it a bit trickier than the last one, but still very enjoyable. 4 is my lucky number.. Just an fyi for the next one ;)
