This second puzzle is a sort of sequel to my first one Squaring things out, also involving the use of squared digits and arrows, but with a different approach.
I tried to keep the math relatively simple, as I know some of you might be scared off by the perspective of summing to large numbers. And for those of you who like this, I'll publish a third puzzle with the same rules and another approach in the near future, before moving to something else.
Rules :
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Arrows : Digits/numbers along an arrow sum to the digit/number in that arrow's circle.
- Special Root Arrow rule : If an arrow forks into several branches, all the branches initiating from that fork must sum to the same total. The arrow's circle is still the sum of all the digits/numbers along all the branches. If an arrow circle has 2 or more arrows initiating from it, this is not considered as a fork. See an example below.
- Squares : Nine cells in the grid (one per row, column and box) are squares, which count as the square of their value on arrows. For example, a squared 9 will count as 81 if it's on an arrow.
Each digit is squared once in the grid.
- The grey square is even
Illustration of arithmetic on arrow forks
The puzzle :
Penpa link (with answer check)
CTC webapp (with answer check)
This one should be a little harder than the previous, but nothing monstrous, probably 3,5/5 on average.
Enjoy ! And consider giving feedback if you like the puzzle !
Solution code: Row 2 and column 7 (18 digits, no space)
on 29. June 2024, 19:12 by Piatato
Very nice! Clean solve with some really fun interactions to work out. :)
on 22. January 2023, 23:23 by ONeill
Very nice! I found the ending to be a bit trickier than the rest of the puzzle.
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Thanks ONeill. Glad you liked it. The ending was a concern to me when I was setting, because it had less flow than I wanted it to feel, but I liked how the final disambiguation worked, so I decided to leave the tricly part before that as it was.
on 20. January 2023, 06:51 by h5663454
This puzzle is not just an arrow like a binary tree, the process of solving the puzzle is also like a binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree binary tree...
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Didn't feel so binary to me after the first part while I was setting it. Very sorry that wasn't to your taste.