Marco Polo (Loop Deconstruction)
(Published on 6. June 2023, 09:00 by Agent)
I thought it'd be interesting to set a Chaos Deconstruction puzzle where the empty celle must be traversed by a loop. The ruleset is inspired mainly by Kakuro Loop, this puzzle was extremely fun and the moment I registered my solve, I knew I wanted to do something similar. I hope you'll enjoy the puzzle!
Rules
- Place some digits from 1 to 9 in the grid such that no repeating digits occur in any row or column.
- Draw a single closed loop (without intersections or crossings) through the center of some cells in the grid. Cells visited by the loop do not contain digits.
- Divide cells not visited by the loop into regions of size N that contain the digits 1 to N once each. Two regions cannot touch orthogonally, but may touch diagonally.
- Cells with arrows must contain a digit indicating the number of cells visited by the loop in the indicated direction.
Example Puzzle (10x10)
Main Puzzle: Marco Polo (15x15)
Solution code: Row 14 (from left to right) then column 13 (from top to bottom). Use L for a turn of the loop and I for a straight segment of the loop. 30 characters total.
Comments
on 31. August 2024, 00:14 by StephenR
Absolutely fiendish. Loop puzzles are not intuitive for me and I found the start and end very difficult. But worth persevering with Agent puzzles as you know there will always be some very elegant logic.
on 12. March 2024, 19:17 by wullemuus
Great, great puzzle!
In my first attempt I used the SudokuPad Version- but the solution check showed errors esp. in the right side of the puzzle. So I had to restart in Penpa. This time my original solution worked ... .
on 29. February 2024, 09:57 by zzw
Awesome puzzle! Super clean all the way through, great interactions.
on 7. January 2024, 12:28 by heliosfant
Thanks for this amazing puzzle. The south-east part is pretty evil ... but nothing compared to the solution code.
on 1. December 2023, 19:50 by lerroyy
Great puzzle, very nice how everything fits together!
on 23. July 2023, 19:36 by samuel1997
It is brutally hard and yet fantastic puzzle, especially the end of the puzzle got me few times and makes me think I broke the puzzle though.
on 2. July 2023, 05:41 by Agent
Thanks everyone for the nice comments!
on 30. June 2023, 14:40 by Silverstep
I used a lot of parity tricks, which... is probably unintended? This feels too easy for a 5-starer, but I guess it has 50 solvers, so the rating got inflated a bit. 43 minutes.
on 20. June 2023, 10:52 by Christounet
Enjoyed the trip around this grid very much ! Although my exploration of the south east part of the world took a bit long longer than expected :) Thanks to the tour operator !
on 11. June 2023, 23:44 by Ratfinkz
Lovely and smooth! Solved in a Collab,thank you.
on 11. June 2023, 23:43 by Myxo
Beautiful and smooth!
on 11. June 2023, 16:07 by Calvinball
I adored every minute (of which there were many) that I spent solving this puzzle.
Thanks for taking your time to set this!
on 11. June 2023, 00:25 by MaizeGator
Extraordinarily smooth puzzle! I think I made the same mistake that some others made towards the end that derailed me a little bit but I still loved this puzzle very much.
on 8. June 2023, 20:44 by ONeill
Fun puzzle, thank you :)
on 8. June 2023, 19:27 by Elliptical
What a tour de force! Well done.
on 7. June 2023, 22:18 by bansalsaab
Ending was bit trickier than i expected. Solution code probably could be smaller after such a beast :-)
on 7. June 2023, 17:58 by peacherwu2
The ending is quite tricky, taking me more than half of the time...
on 7. June 2023, 09:15 by Jesper
Great puzzle! Super smooth and quite approachable.
on 7. June 2023, 03:16 by RJBlarmo
Very nice puzzle! Might want to clarify that the example uses 1 to 6 only.
on 6. June 2023, 16:20 by Jorrr2
Very nice puzzle! The ending confused me (also due to a mistake) so it took me a lot of time. I don't think it is 5 stars difficulty but still 4,5 stars for me.
on 6. June 2023, 15:58 by Grausbert
Awesome puzzle! Maybe add to the text for the solution-code that the numbers are to be added as well. That wasn't really clear for me at first.
on 6. June 2023, 15:26 by MicroStudy
great loop, great regions, what more can you ask for really
on 6. June 2023, 15:10 by KNT
good fun, thanks!
on 6. June 2023, 15:06 by Snookerfan
Great puzzle! Smooth and very interesting throughout. Thank you
on 6. June 2023, 12:27 by Piatato
Awesome! Very smooth and fun throughout!
