Cave Express (Japanese Sums Cipher)
(Published on 21. February 2023, 09:00 by Agent)
This is my first attempt at a Japanese Sums puzzle, inspired by KNT's Cave Cipher ruleset. Definitely one of the most intricate and fascinating ruleset I've tried setting with, there will likely be more similar puzzles coming up. I hope you will enjoy!
Rules
Cave:Shade some cells in the grid such that all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected, and all shaded cells are orthogonally connected by other shaded cells to an edge of the grid.
Japanese Sums:
- Place some digits from 1 to 9 in every unshaded cell. Digits may not repeat in any row or column. Shaded cells do not contain digits.
- Clues outside the grid indicate the sum of digits in each contiguous sequence of unshaded cells in the respective row or column, in the correct order. For a given row or column, either all clues or no clues are provided.
Variant: Draw a path through the center of some unshaded cells, from the bottom-right cell (R12C12) to the top-left cell (R1C1). The path cannot visit the smallest digit in any horizontal or vertical sequence of one or more unshaded cells.
Main Puzzle: Cave Express (12x12)
Solution code: Column 1 (from top to bottom) then column 2 (from top to bottom). Use X for shaded cells.
Comments
on 1. July 2024, 19:55 by StephenR
What a corker of a puzzle. I found it hard in places, but that's how I like it. The logic involving the line in particular was lovely.
on 23. May 2024, 12:04 by Playmaker6174
Incredibly smooth and satisfying puzzle given the premise! I especially enjoyed the works around col 4-5-6, along with the final resolution of the entire thing ;)
on 8. May 2024, 13:14 by ibag
Phantastic! Very interesting concept! And not very hard in my opinion ...
on 24. November 2023, 10:43 by Christounet
Superb ! Enjoyed discovering the implications of the ruleset. Very fun, very smooth. Thanks :)
on 17. October 2023, 18:24 by Snookerfan
Brilliant! Thank you
on 16. August 2023, 17:59 by madhupt
An absolutely magnificent puzzle! It was fascinating to see all the rulesets - Japanese sum, Cave and the new Path constraint - working together to work down the extremely narrow solve path. It was very difficult for me but it was smooth and delicious after getting my head around the logic starting from the SE corner. Thanks a lot for sharing. You are a genius.
on 31. March 2023, 12:26 by Myxo
Awesome!
on 6. March 2023, 17:36 by AnnaTh
Very nice variant! I am looking forward to your next Japanese sums puzzle ideas!
on 4. March 2023, 14:03 by lerroyy
Very nice puzzle!
-- Thank you lerroyy!
on 25. February 2023, 23:33 by Agent
Thanks everyone! Looking forward to share with you more JS puzzles :)
on 25. February 2023, 06:42 by RJBlarmo
Very interesting ruleset! Lots of fun to solve, looking forward to seeing more similar puzzles.
on 23. February 2023, 09:51 by ddx2407
Amazing puzzle. Just wow! That was so intriguing. Thank you, Agent.
on 22. February 2023, 17:31 by ONeill
Great puzzle!
on 21. February 2023, 23:15 by Jesper
Great puzzle, very creative JSCC variant!
on 21. February 2023, 19:09 by JayForty
Great puzzle! Challenging with a good variety of clever logic. Thanks!
on 21. February 2023, 16:01 by KNT
I can only echo everything Piatato said :-)
on 21. February 2023, 12:57 by Piatato
Terrific puzzle! It never ceases to amaze me how silky smooth your puzzles are. Awesome interactions throughout!
on 21. February 2023, 09:33 by Xendari
Super fun! Found it to be very challenging throughout the whole solve. There was a lot of really unique logic introduced by the ruleset and precise clue placement. Thanks for setting and sharing :)
on 21. February 2023, 09:04 by Niverio
This was absolutely brilliant. Always love solving more Jsum Caves from different setters! Very smooth flow throughout.
