Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Portal X-sums

(Published on 3. October 2023, 00:01 by Playmaker6174)

The following puzzle of mine revisits a concept that was done over a year ago by myself here, and it's about using portals for interactions with outside clues. The very first one used Little Killer and for this occasion, X-sum will be the next one to be done. The whole setting process was quite a rollercoaster here and there, but at the end I got a proper result that should utilize each of the special modification for the portal concept.

The solve isn't very difficult overall, but it can be quite tricky at times to grasp a couple of ideas in this one. For now, I hope you enjoy the puzzle!

Rules:

- Normal Sudoku rules apply: every row, column and 3x3 box contains digits from 1 to 9 each once.

- An X-sum clue next to a row/column is defined as the sum of the first X digits starting from the respective direction of its row/column, where X is the value of the cell next to that clue. But, in this puzzle, there's an additional small twist:

- Six portals are given within the grid and they must contain digits from 1-6 each, which act as the 'labels' of those portals.

+ For the purpose of this puzzle, whenever an outside clue counts the number of X cells and has to 'enter' a portal, it must 'exit' from the next portal and continue the count in the same direction after that. It's possible that an outside clue may enter multiple portals.
The order of entering and exiting from a portal is as follow: 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 1.
+ The ultimate limit that an outside clue can reach to is the 9x9 grid borders.

1) If an outside clue doesn't enter any portal, it acts as a normal X-sum clue.
2) If an outside clue has to enter at least one portal, its X-sum value is calculated as the sum of the exact first X cells within the process of entering and exiting from portals, but NOT including the digits from the portals themselves, where X is also the value of the cell next to that clue. For that case, digits can repeat along the sum if allowed by sudoku rules.


Below here is an example image. The wording is a bit hard to do but the image will help understanding the main concept much better in my opinions.
There are 3 main cases for an outside clue, and each clue is the sum of its respective colored cells.

Puzzle:

F-puzzle link

Penpa plus

Sudokupad


Good luck and have fun solving!

Solution code: All 6 digits within the portals (enter from top to bottom respectively) and then column 9 (top to bottom), code is 15 digits long total


Solved by ClashCode, bansalsaab, fjam, AvonD, Elliott810, marcmees, Jesper, juhish, lerroyy, Bankey, sanabas, samuel1997, meixia, mse326, madhupt, kiwi0710, Christounet, NightDog, Piatato, Flambierter Flamingo, Myxo, Martijn314, escutcheon, Vebby, Niverio
Full list

Comments

on 17. October 2023, 23:23 by Myxo
Beautiful puzzle with a lot of surprising logic!

on 6. October 2023, 16:10 by Piatato
Fun puzzle!

on 4. October 2023, 15:17 by Christounet
Uncut pleasure solving this ! Thanks :)

on 4. October 2023, 04:41 by Playmaker6174
Thanks everyone for the lovely feedback! I’m glad that the puzzle sparked some joy to you all :)

on 3. October 2023, 18:35 by madhupt
An absolutely amazing puzzle! After a very straightforward start, the actual break-in took some time in box 4. The logic just kept on bouncing back between rows, columns and portals in a very smooth manner. Lovely and a very satisfying solve. Thanks for sharing!

on 3. October 2023, 15:19 by samuel1997
Very fun and mind-bending! Enjoy it so much!

on 3. October 2023, 12:29 by Bankey
Fascinating puzzle. Thanks, @ Playmaker6174 :).

on 3. October 2023, 11:18 by Jesper
Fun idea, enjoyed it, thanks!

on 3. October 2023, 11:06 by marcmees
very nice. thanks

on 3. October 2023, 08:05 by Elliott810
Absolutely brilliant puzzle! Take a bow and thanks:)

on 3. October 2023, 01:27 by bansalsaab
Very nice puzzle.

Last changed on 3. October 2023, 00:36

on 3. October 2023, 00:21 by bansalsaab
Hi, None of the links are working.
---
Update: ok the links are back, you can try to enter them now :)

Difficulty:4
Rating:95 %
Solved:25 times
Observed:6 times
ID:000FCX

Variant combination Online solving tool Arithmetic puzzle

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Solution code:

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