Silent Snakes (ft. Nordy)
(Published on 21. July 2023, 18:35 by yttrio)
This puzzle is a collaboration between myself and Nordy, and was inspired by the puzzle Thermosnakes.
Rules:
Normal Sudoku rules apply: Place the digits 1 to 9 in every row, column, and 3x3 box.
Each circle is an endpoint of a nonbranching one-cell-wide snake of orthogonally connected cells, and each circle represents a different snake. No single snake can take up a full 2x2 square within the grid, and different snakes cannot share the same cell. Also, each snake must visit at least two 3x3 boxes within the grid.
The digit in each circle is the length of the corresponding snake (e.g., a 7 in the circle means that the snake must be 7 cells long).
Each snake also acts as a German Whispers line (i.e., adjacent digits along a snake must have a difference of at least 5).
6x6 Example:
The image below shows a sample 6x6 puzzle and solution with the same rule set.
Note: For 6x6 Sudoku, adjacent digits on a German Whispers line must have a difference of at least 3 (instead of the usual 5)
Play the example 6x6 in f-puzzles.
Play the example 6x6 in SudokuPad.
Solution code: Row 8 followed by row 9 (18 digits no spaces)
Comments
on 18. June 2024, 11:34 by wuc
What a joy solving these levels. Very clever. So smooth. I love it. Thx.
on 25. September 2023, 12:17 by Possum
Beautiful. Unfortunately, in my first try I made a mistake somewhere near the end, that I couldn't dissolve anymore. But the puzzle is so much fun, that I didn't mind starting over again.
on 24. July 2023, 12:02 by HumanBirdsong
This is a fantastic puzzle, well done!
on 24. July 2023, 04:00 by damasosos92
Smoooooooth!
on 23. July 2023, 19:40 by MusicGusto
One of my favorite puzzles so far! Very approachable.
on 23. July 2023, 15:16 by Fool on Hill
Really nice clean logic throughout
on 23. July 2023, 02:00 by Florbttt
majestic
on 22. July 2023, 11:41 by farodin64
This makes my day, thanks a lot for setting.
on 22. July 2023, 05:44 by Silverscree
That was really nice. I actually used uniqueness to make the final deduction, and thought it was entirely necessary until I remembered one of the special rules that I hadn't used since the start.
on 21. July 2023, 23:30 by SamuPiano
Wonderful idea and execution!
on 21. July 2023, 22:15 by Niverio
Very nice idea!
on 21. July 2023, 22:02 by Bankey
That was fun! Thanks, Nordy and yttrio :).
on 21. July 2023, 20:01 by Calvinball
I had an absolute blast with this! Thank you both for sharing this gem with us!
