Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT
(Published on 22. April 2023, 12:18 by Niverio)
I told you payback will be there in April, KNT! I also made sure that I went as crazy as you have for my gift (Although I opted for "long and fun" over "short and mindblowing"). I hope you enjoy this set of 4 12x12 Japanese Sum grids over the upcoming week, and I wish you a wonderful birthday!
Rules:
Ciphered Japanese Sums (with Irrwisch): Presented are 4 12x12 grids. In each grid, place digits from 1-9 into each unshaded cell (including clue cells) such that no digit repeats in any row or column. Clues outside the grid are Japanese Sums clues, which indicate the sums of the connected unshaded blocks, in correct order. For each row or column, either all or no clues are provided. A ? stands for any digit 0-9, with ? representing a single digit number and ?? representing a double digit number, but for any double digit clue, the leading digit cannot be a zero. Clues are ciphered, where each unique letter stands for a different digit. Out of the 11 letters, 10 stand for the 10 digits of 0-9, while one of the 3 letters of KNT is Irrwisch, whose value is different every time it appears in the 4 grids. Cipher is the same across all grids, including the Irrwisch letter.
Ambiguity: The 4 presented grids each have different shading rules. They each follow one of the 4 following standard pencil puzzle genres. Which grid obeys which genre's rules must be deduced by the solver:
1) Cave: Shade some cells such that each unshaded cell is orthogonally connected (creating the cave), and each block of shaded cells is orthogonally connected to an edge of the grid (the walls). All clued cells inside the grid are part of the cave, and indicate the total count of cells connected vertically and horizontally to the clued cell, including itself.
2) Koralle (Coral): Shade some empty cells to create a single connected wall (the “Coral”). The shaded cells cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid, and each unshaded cell block must be connected to an edge of the grid. All clued cells are unshaded, and indicate the amount of coral cells found in their row and column combined.
3) Nurikabe: Shade some cells so that the grid is divided into areas(islands) of unshaded cells. Each unshaded area contains exactly one clue, and that clue's value indicates the size of that island. Digits cannot repeat on an island. All shaded cells must be orthogonally connected with each other, but shaded cells cannot create a 2x2 block anywhere in the grid.
4) Tapa: Shade some empty cells to create a single connected wall. Numbers in a cell indicate the length of consecutive shaded block (Not blocks, as this puzzle has no multi-clued cells) in the neighbouring 8 cells. Cells with clues cannot be shaded, and the shaded cells cannot form a 2×2 square anywhere in the grid.
Puzzle Links: (Answer check enabled for all 5 Penpa+ grids, follow the answer check guidelines section below.)
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (All Grids) - Penpa+
Ciphered Japenese Sums - KNT (All Grids) - CTC
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Blue Grid) - Penpa+
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Blue Grid) - CTC
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Red Grid) - Penpa+
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Red Grid) - CTC
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Green Grid) - Penpa+
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Green Grid) - CTC
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Yellow Grid) - Penpa+
Ciphered Japanese Sums - KNT (Yellow Grid) - CTC
Answer check guidelines: Answer check is enabled for any correct gray shading of the 12x12 grids, and correct number placement, including the cryptic tables. While filling the cryptic tables, fill the Irrwisch letter with ?, and enter the grids' shading genre's first letter into the colored cell. (C, K, N or T) Irrwisch Tracker is irrelevant for the answer check and is merely provided to help with the tracking of Irrwisch. (Note: Don't color a number with gray/black in the tracker as that will mess the shading aspect of answer check.)
And finally, I am adding all 4 individual grids as seperate pictures if people want to print them out on a larger scale:
Blue Grid:
Green Grid:
Red Grid:
Yellow Grid:
I hope you all enjoy solving this long present! I also want to thank polar, Myxo and Xendari for the tests that allowed this puzzle to happen.
Solution code: Row 7 of each grid, in following order: Koralle, Nurikabe, Tapa, Cave. Use S for shaded cells, and seperate each set of 12 characters with - (In the end, 51 characters, no commas or spaces.)
Comments
on 8. February 2024, 16:34 by ONeill
Excellent puzzle(s)!
on 27. November 2023, 23:12 by Christounet
Pantagruelic meal !
When I saw the huge plate served on the table, I knew it would take me some time to clean it, but I did and I enjoyed every bite !
A glorious birthday gift, long and fun as advertised on the menu, but mindblowing as well, with explosions of delicious deductions, followed by long stretches of serotoninergic puzzle flow...
As Anton Ego would say, "I don't like this puzzle, I love it !"
Thanks !! :)
on 28. September 2023, 15:38 by karlmortenlunna
Pheeww! That took some time to finish for me, but very enjoyable all the way. A masterpiece!
on 9. August 2023, 20:49 by Uhu
Wow, just wow! (And thanks a lot, it was so much fun.)
on 22. May 2023, 13:30 by AnnaTh
Thank you, Niverio, for hours of fun and excitement. Thanks to ffrickes comment I gave it another try. Once you get started you can not stop!
on 7. May 2023, 11:42 by ffricke
This was a long journey for me. On the first try I made an early wrong assumption, for which I found the contradiction very late, but it was already fun.
So I started from the scratch and I went through step by step. I only struggled a bit at the Cave puzzle and I often had to remind me: "No, in opposite to Coral, Nurikabe and Tapa not all blackened cells must be orthoganally connected and Yes, in opposite to Coral, Nurikabe and Tapa it is allowed that blackened cells can fill a 2x2 region". With that I finally also could solve the last puzzle.
This combination of favorite puzzles was really a wonderful gift.
on 1. May 2023, 11:40 by Piatato
Awesome main dish, masterfully set! A joy to solve, from start to finish. :-D
on 30. April 2023, 00:41 by Agent
Lovely puzzle pack, really enjoyable!
on 25. April 2023, 13:37 by Playmaker6174
The ultimate form of Japanese Sum Cipher puzzle, truly a spectacle to witness and the one that I’m happy to give it as solid 5/5 (or 10/10, if you prefer this range) both in terms of quality and difficulty.
Keeping track of which grid/parts would be the next useful one was definitely the hardest part throughout, and through silly mistakes I could finally reach to the end and embraced the awesomeness of each grid (well, maybe the Tapa grid was weird and annoying too xD).
Really excellent job on making a heck of a birthday present to one of my most ‘disappointing’ brilliant setters x)
on 25. April 2023, 02:35 by KNT
Commenting again for some advertisement :)
Don't be scared of this puzzle, everyone! If you've done the puzzles Niverio posted leading up to this, you absolutely are capable of solving it.
on 23. April 2023, 16:24 by Jesper
Awesome long and fun journey, thanks!
on 23. April 2023, 05:43 by RJBlarmo
A fantastic set of puzzles! I appreciate that there weren't any super tricky individual steps, just a smooth, (very) long solve.
Happy birthday KNT!
on 23. April 2023, 02:05 by Xendari
A truly magnificent puzzle! It’s lucky that the letters in KNT’s name allowed for constraints that a lot of us are familiar with XD
on 22. April 2023, 20:26 by KNT
I take back my previous comment. My plans for the day are still in a couple hours- this was an amazing, amazing way to spend my morning :)
It really is so smooth (and more importantly, fun!) despite the daunting size, a real masterpiece! Thank you so, so much!!
on 22. April 2023, 16:13 by MicroStudy
happy birthday TNC
(you can have one too knt)
on 22. April 2023, 16:05 by Myxo
Happy birthday, KNT! :D
I really enjoyed testing this puzzle. It's challenging and interesting throughout, and quite smooth despite the size.
on 22. April 2023, 14:51 by KNT
Well this looks like it’ll keep me occupied for some hours. Insanity!
Thank you immensely for this gift, and of course while I likely won’t get to start today, all other solving will be put on hold until this beast is conquered.
on 22. April 2023, 14:01 by polar
Testing this was my pleasure - I surely hope he follows the intended path now rather than some bonkers one ;) Thanks Niv!
And wishing the happiest of birthdays to KNT, despite him being a constant disappointment.
