Japanese Sum Cave Cipher: Fillomino (Parity)
(Published on 18. November 2022, 18:32 by Niverio)
- Fillomino: Divide the grid into orthogonally connected regions such that no two regions of the same size share an edge, and enter a number into each cell equal to the size of its region.
- Cave: Shade some cells in the grid such that the final shading of the grid resembles a valid cave (all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected and all shaded cells are orthogonally connected by other shaded cells to an edge of the grid).
- Parity :Every region is either entirely shaded or entirely unshaded, and the shading is based on parity: All fillomino's containing one parity form either the wall or the cave shading, and the other parity forms the OTHER shading of the cave. Which parity belongs to which must be deduced by the solver.
- Japanese Sums: Outside clues are Japanese sum clues. "?" is a stand in for any digit 0-9, but for a double digit number, the first digit may not be 0. Each distinct letter represents some unique digit from 0 to 9. Clues also represent the correct digit count, ? is for a single digit number, ?? (or variations thereof, like ?D) is for a double digit number.
- Clues to the left of the grid are Japanese sum clues for either shaded or unshaded groups of cells, where each group needs at least one of the other (shaded or unshaded) to separate the groups. Clues to the top of the grid are Japanese sum clues for the OTHER of shaded or unshaded. (That is, if it turns out clues to the left indicate sums of unshaded blocks, clues to the top indicate sums of shaded blocks).
- For each row or column, either all or no outside clues are given.
Below is an example illustration to showcase how the rule set might work in a 6x6 Fillomino grid:
And below is the main puzzle, available in Penpa+. Answer check is enabled for correct number placement, including the cryptic column. Enjoy!
Solution code: Numbers in Row 1, followed by Row 4 (No commas or spaces.)
Comments
on 3. April 2023, 15:43 by lerroyy
Very nice puzzle with a smooth solve!
on 21. February 2023, 07:09 by zetamath
This was very fun and engaging throughout even though I made about fifty logic errors in the very beginning, but I didn't break it after that!
on 16. February 2023, 04:41 by Agent
Fantastic puzzle! Many clever moments culminating in a lovely finish.
on 14. February 2023, 00:21 by Xendari
broke this puzzle at least five times over the course of a few months, very glad I could finish it!! lovely puzzle :))
on 14. January 2023, 12:37 by Piatato
Great puzzle! I had a lot of fun throughout this one. :-D
on 20. December 2022, 01:17 by Myxo
Amazing!
on 10. December 2022, 20:42 by peacherwu2
Amazing puzzle! Thank you so much!
on 24. November 2022, 11:21 by Vebby
Fantastic idea and puzzle! Made an incorrect assumption regarding c12, but other than that I thought it had a really nice flow throughout. Thanks Niverio! :)
on 22. November 2022, 16:55 by Playmaker6174
What an awesome and engaging puzzle, even for a fillo noob like me x)
Figuring out the initial start was fairly easy, but things started to hurt my mind as the solve went on, should've got some parts done much earlier but I'm glad that I was that persistent till the very end ;)
on 21. November 2022, 17:49 by KNT
agreed with @polar, never a huge fan of parity in much of anything, but this had awesome execution. glad to see stuff inspired by me on here as always :)
on 20. November 2022, 20:07 by JayForty
Great puzzle! Very nice deductions and fun to explore!
on 19. November 2022, 15:22 by polar
You managed to turn one of my less favoured variants (parity) into a thoroughly enjoyable solve; the mark of a great puzzle! Thanks Niv :)
on 19. November 2022, 01:07 by MagnusJosefsson
Awesome! Amazing puzzle with a lot of really clear but challenging and satisfying deductions. Thanks you Niverio!
on 18. November 2022, 23:35 by ONeill
Superb puzzle! The break-in is very nice, and the parity logic is a fun twist. Thanks :)
on 18. November 2022, 19:38 by Jesper
Great puzzle! So much fun and varied logic, I enjoyed it immensely.
