The King's Garden
(Published on 5. October 2023, 08:00 by Nordy)
Remix of a previous idea. I think the ruleset works quite nicely in a 3-star version, so here it is!
Rules:
Normal Sudoku: Place the digits 1 to 9 in every row, column, and 3x3 box.
The Valiant Viper: Draw a 1-cell wide, orthogonally-connected snake that does not branch, does not loop, and does not touch itself, not even diagonally.
Circles—Snake Knight Sums: Every circle is part of the snake and sees at least two other snake cells by knight’s move. A digit in a circle gives the sum of all snake cells within a knight’s move of that circle.
Squares—Non-Snake King Sums: Every square is not part of the snake and sees at least two other non-snake cells by king’s move. A digit in a square gives the sum of all non-snake cells within a king’s move of that square.
Example: Below is an example of the rules interacting.
Solve online:
Solution code: Column 7
Comments
on 19. May 2024, 14:53 by wuc
Awesome puzzle. One hour of pure joy. Thx.
on 30. April 2024, 10:47 by Piatato
Awesome puzzle, thanks!
on 8. February 2024, 18:28 by puzzlepandit
Excellent puzzle. Enjoyed it from heart. Nice solvable path which uses combination of both the sudoku rules and custom rule set. I did mess up in first attempt. But after help from author corrected the course and able to do it.
on 13. October 2023, 01:45 by mrlemmelook
What a nice puzzle! Nice flow throughout, loved it.
on 8. October 2023, 10:58 by Christounet
Lovely ! Thanks :)
on 6. October 2023, 05:18 by yttrio
Very fun puzzle!
on 6. October 2023, 01:27 by mathpesto
What an innovative ruleset and it was a lot of fun to solve! Love that given digit ;)
on 5. October 2023, 16:54 by Malrog
Lovely puzzle Nordy, I did enjoy hunting the snake. Thank you. If you wish for a similar-ish sweeper cell + path combo, you could check out 000AMU from Wessel Strijkstra and I.
on 5. October 2023, 12:52 by Snookerfan
Very nice! Maybe the smoothest puzzle ever. Thank you
on 5. October 2023, 12:31 by erml
Oh yes!
on 5. October 2023, 10:41 by SirWoezel
Great puzzle!
on 5. October 2023, 10:22 by Briks
I liked it very much. No guessing necessary. Thumbs up!
