Neodymium (Double Cave Japanese Sums)
(Published on 4. June 2024, 09:00 by Agent)
Rules
- Shade some cells in the grid so that there are exactly 2 groups of orthogonally connected unshaded cells, and all shaded cells are connected by other shaded cells to an edge of the grid.
- Place a digit from 1 to 9 into every unshaded cell, leaving shaded cells empty. Digits may not repeat in any row or column.
- Clues outside the grid give the sum of digits in each contiguous sequence of unshaded cells in the respective row or column. For a given row or column, either all clues or no clues are given.
- Each letter represents a different digit from 0 to 9. A question mark may represent any digit from 0 to 9, but for double digit numbers, the first digit may not be 0.
- Two orthogonally adjacent unshaded cells must have opposite parity (one odd and one even).
Example Puzzle (8x8)
Main Puzzle (12x12)
Solution code: The digits in row 11 (from left to right) then column 7 (from top to bottom), ignoring empty cells.
Comments
on 23. August 2024, 12:40 by Alex
This came highly recommended and was fantastic!
on 17. August 2024, 16:10 by ibag
Wonderful (as usual)!
on 11. August 2024, 16:20 by Myxo
Lovely!
on 3. August 2024, 12:20 by Agent
Updated example links because a clue was incorrect.
on 2. July 2024, 15:33 by AnnaTh
Fantastic puzzle!Thank you!
on 21. June 2024, 01:01 by Piatato
Fantastic puzzle, thanks!
on 13. June 2024, 10:58 by Playmaker6174
Really an amazing and ultimately satisfying puzzle!
It's sweet how pretty much the entire solve path clicked with me (including how the cave connectivity worked), and the final cave resolution was just exquisite *chef's kiss* x)
on 11. June 2024, 04:56 by lerroyy
Very nice!
on 8. June 2024, 05:43 by MaizeGator
Like every agent puzzle, this one engaged my entire brain. Arithmetic thoughts, topology thoughts, parity thoughts.
on 6. June 2024, 21:18 by Jesper
Awesome, thanks!
on 5. June 2024, 16:13 by Niverio
Lovely twist on how to think about shading in this one!
on 5. June 2024, 15:41 by Agent
Added example puzzle.
on 5. June 2024, 04:31 by ONeill
Really fun!
on 5. June 2024, 03:54 by KNT
really great idea! thanks for the fun puzzle
on 5. June 2024, 01:39 by Christounet
Phew ! That was awesome, loved the ruleset and its implications, but quite hard for me in the later half because I kept making parity errors. Thanks :)
on 4. June 2024, 21:55 by Snookerfan
Fantastic puzzle! Lovely new twist on the cave rules. Thank you
on 4. June 2024, 13:37 by zzw
Amazing puzzle!! These rules work so well together.
on 4. June 2024, 09:31 by RJBlarmo
Very nice puzzle! This kind of multiple cave type ruleset is fascinating and I'd love to see more puzzles like this.
