Crypto Japanese Cave from the Underworld
(Published on 30. October 2022, 05:29 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.
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. 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.
At any of the clues to the right and bottom of the grid, one must imagine Sisyphos pushing a boulder up a hill. Each number combined with its shading represents a distinct level of elevation; all unshaded cells are of higher elevation than shaded cells, the unshaded 1 being the highest elevation and the shaded 9 being the lowest elevation, and so on. The clue number indicates the total number of cells Sisyphos will push the boulder up the hill before he falls back down (and is doomed to repeat for eternity). At each cell, Sisyphos will always choose to travel to the cell with the highest elevation of his (up to) three possible orthogonal choices, and if there is ever a tie, he will always travel straight ahead. Furthermore, Sisyphos will never choose to travel to a cell that is of lower elevation than his current location, as that is making backwards progress. If at any cell Sisyphos can no longer make forward progress, he falls and the path is over.
The letters A to G 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 1-7 example is provided:
Solution code: Row 4 followed by Column 4
Comments
on 8. November 2025, 23:30 by Agent
That was fun, very smooth once the infinite boulders get going!
on 28. July 2024, 04:04 by KNT
@Las4one: I recently have been changing/updating the links on many of my older puzzles, and it seems this was an unfortunate typo. apologies for this! I just saw your comment and fixed it.
on 28. July 2024, 03:38 by Las4one
For future solvers, the clue on the right side of row 2 is B instead of G in sudokupad.
on 1. November 2023, 11:42 by Piatato
Fantastic! The smoothest one in the series so far, I think. I didn't manage to get started with the example puzzle, though, that one seems much harder than the main puzzle!
on 27. September 2023, 19:48 by Christounet
Catching up, catching up...
This one remembered me another boulder puzzle by Jesper I solved some month ago. Great stuff too here, even if some of those boulders rolled over my head a couple times while solving ;) Thanks !
on 24. January 2023, 23:06 by lerroyy
Really nice puzzle!
on 10. January 2023, 01:17 by Myxo
Easy puzzle.
on 10. November 2022, 19:35 by KNT
Title
on 2. November 2022, 23:44 by MagnusJosefsson
Wonderful! Impressive construction and very well implemented solution path!
on 2. November 2022, 16:36 by ibag
Fantastic! And not as hard as the other ones.
on 1. November 2022, 16:56 by Vebby
Very nice! One significant hurdle in the beginning after which it all tumbled beautifully to the solution. Thanks KNT! :)
on 1. November 2022, 16:39 by Niverio
I love how the boulders are immune to friendly blocks :)
on 30. October 2022, 22:51 by marcmees
Very nice. The 6 Sisiphos boulders well integrated in the solve. thanks.
on 30. October 2022, 20:07 by ONeill
Wonderful combination, and very well executed! Thanks :)
on 30. October 2022, 15:59 by Jesper
A wonderful and very challenging puzzle! I love this series :)
on 30. October 2022, 05:34 by polar
Insanely smooth puzzle considering the complexity of the rules. Agreed the example is a must! Thank you :)
