Trapped Snake
This is a collab puzzle with gdc hope you enjoy it.
Rules:
Normal Sudoku rules apply.
Draw a one-cell-wide loop of orthogonally connected cells. The loop can't touch itself, not even diagonally.
All cells enclosed by the loop lie on a snake. The snake is one-cell-wide, and doesn't branch or touch itself, not even diagonally. The snake and the loop can't share cells.
Box borders divide the snake into segments with equal sums.
Every run of three digits on the loop contains a digit from {1,4,7}, a digit from {2,5,8} and a digit from {3,6,9}.
All squares are on the snake. A digit in a square counts the number of snake-cells or the number of non-snake-cells in the box.
Solution code: Row 4, left to right (9 digits).
on 15. June 2024, 19:02 by Geb
This one almost inevitably ends up as a colour salad while solving! The logic is beautiful but the visuals along the way are wild and chaotic.
on 11. June 2024, 22:02 by gdc
Thanks dorlir for the opportunity to construct a puzzle together. It was quite fun to work out the implications of the rules and explore different solve-paths.