Zodiac Project: Cage Decoder
(Published on 12. June 2024, 23:06 by sujoyku)
- Orion’s belt by ViKingPrime
- Counting Castles by marty_sears
- Derezzed by heliopolix
- Rodd Stevens by 99%Sneaky
- Phase Shift by meggen033
The next Zodiac Project puzzle will be set by the fabulous Flinty. His specified disjoint set is the following:
I wish him good fun setting and already look forward to seeing what he comes up with.
Zodiac Project, Chapter 6: Cage Decoder
When spaceship commander Ukyo Jus looked at the screen in front of her, she was in complete shock and disbelief: Not only had the necessary intergalactical space coordinates been intercepted, but they had been altered to utter unintelligibility. Can you help her decode them and thereby secure further progress of the Zodiac Project?
- Normal sudoku rules apply, i.e. each row, column and 3x3 region has to contain the digits from 1 to 9 once each.
- Disjoint set: The diamonds contain a complete set of the digits from 1 to 9. In other words, no two diamonds may contain identical digits.
- Letter clues: Each letter represents a digit. If a letter appears multiple times in the grid, it always represents the same digit. Distinct letters must represent distinct digits. Clarification: The letter clue in the vertical cage in column 4 is an f.
- Quadruple: A digit in a circle must appear in one of the four surrounding cells.
- Killer cages: Digits in a cage must sum to the clue in the top left. (Two letter clues are read as standard two-digit numbers from left to right, i.e. if a represents 1 and b represents 2 the combination ab is a 12 clue.)
Many thanks go to CaptZebraCakes and meggen033 for testing the puzzle. I wish you happy solving!
Here you can solve the puzzle online:
Solution code: Row 5 from left to right (9 digits in total)
Comments
on 11. September 2024, 21:13 by Bankey
Fun puzzle. Thanks, @ sujoyku :).
**
Thank you for your comment, Bankey! I am glad you had a fun solve.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. July 2024, 15:34 by Christounet
Very enjoyable puzzle ! Neat encoded killer cages and a cool way of interacting with the diamond set. Thanks :)
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You are much welcome, Christounet, thank you for your comment! I am glad that you found it enjoyable and liked the interaction with the diamonds.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 1. July 2024, 09:07 by SamuPiano
Lovely puzzle :) Thanks for this one, sujoyku!
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Thank you for commenting, SamuPiano! I am glad you enjoyed the puzzle. Yesterday, I finally succeeded in solving gdc's Zodiac puzzle. I saw that yours is out there as well and will give it a try soon. It is great to see how the Zodiac puzzles keep on coming.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 30. June 2024, 09:40 by sujoyku
changed the sudokupad link to include solution check (thanks to QuiltyAsCharged for kindly providing it!), no changes to the contents of the puzzle
on 30. June 2024, 02:26 by QuiltyAsCharged
Excellent puzzle, and a worthy addition to the Zodiac project. I'm so glad the intergalactical space coordinates could be recovered! I did find it quite a challenge. Easily a 4-star difficulty for me.
Do you mind if I share the CtC link with the solution check enabled? It's https://sudokupad.app/3jdtsh6b5a
**
Thank you for your comment, QuiltyAsCharged! I am glad that you liked the puzzle. Also thanks for the sudokupad link with solution check. I will include it in the puzzle page above.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 27. June 2024, 17:30 by wenchang
Nice Setting. Spoiler alert in Chinese. https://youtu.be/-ZKJ37tSO4A
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Thank you for the comment and featuring my puzzle, wenchang! Unfortunately, I don't speak chinese. But let's see how much of your reasoning I can deduce from the pencil-marks/digits you fill in. :)
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 25. June 2024, 00:37 by LeaVulpina
Dies war 'ne reine Freude vom Beginn bis zum Ende! :D Nicht leicht, aber auf keinen Fall so schwer wie ich zuerst davon ausgegangen bin. Tausend mal Danke!
**
Vielen Dank für deinen freundlichen Kommentar, LeaVulpina! Es ist schön zu wissen, dass Dir das Rätsel Freude bereitet hat.
Herzliche Grüße, sujoyku
on 16. June 2024, 23:16 by BorisTheSnake
That didn't feel like a 4-star... 3 at most?
**
Thank you for commenting, BorisTheSnake! Of course, difficulty is a subjective thing. But I found this puzzle harder than most of my 3 star puzzles and therefore have estimated it at 4 stars. Thank you for sharing your opinion on that matter.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 16. June 2024, 18:56 by ViKingPrime
Absolutely beautiful, how that all unfolds at the end. Great use of the disjoint set.
**
Thank you for your kind comment, ViKingPrime! I am glad that you liked the puzzle and its use of the disjoint set. Also thank you for starting the Zodiac Project! It was a great experience for me to participate.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 14. June 2024, 13:10 by Franjo
It was a pleasure to help commander Jus solving this masterpiece of a puzzle. Thank you very much for sharing.
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You are much welcome, Franjo, thank you for comment! Commander Jus is grateful for your support of the Zodiac Project.
But jokes aside: It was a true pleasure to set this puzzle and it is great to hear that you enjoyed solving it.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 14. June 2024, 10:22 by Snookerfan
Great puzzle! Some tricky stuff in the mid-solve, which I liked a lot. Thank you
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Thank you for your comment, Snookerfan! I am glad that you liked the puzzle. For me, there are also some steps that I am quite fond of, especially that the diamonds ared used for some key deductions.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 14. June 2024, 00:10 by samuel1997
I love this puzzle! Thank you!
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Thank you for your comment, samuel1997! I am glad that you liked it.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 22:17 by sujoyku
added clarification for the f-cage in column 4 (thanks to Niverio for bringing it to my attention), translated "von" to "by" in the english version, corrected puzzle title by meggen033 to "Phase shift" (sorry for the misspelling before), no changes to the contents of the puzzle
on 13. June 2024, 20:28 by Gullie
Wow, I loved that! I was hesitant to try, because it’s quite hard, but the 100% rating convinced me to have a go. I never got really stuck, logic was very elegant, small babysteps to intergalactic victory :-). Thanks for setting!
**
You are much welcome, Gullie, and congratulations on the solve! I am glad that you gave the puzzle a try and had an enjoyable solve.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 19:12 by CaptZebraCakes
This is such a phenomenal puzzle, sujoyku!
**
Thank you for your kind words and your constant support, CaptZebraCakes! I am glad you liked the puzzle.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 18:52 by Flinty
Very nice :) and thank you for asking me to set the next one, I have a few ideas, so fingers crossed it's as enjoyable as this one and won't be too long a wait!
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Thank you for your comment, Flinty! Since I am a big fan of your puzzles, I am very happy that you said yes. So that is a win-win. :)
If you like me to test a version of your puzzle at some point, please let me know.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 16:37 by Prince Myshkin
Great puzzle, loved it!
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Thank you for the kind feedback, Prince Myshkin! I am glad you enjoyed the puzzle.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 14:38 by mihel111
That was a hard battle. Very well done commander.
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Thank you for your comment, mihel111! It was a hard battle, but you made it through. Congratulations on the solve and thank you for supporting the Zodiac project! :)
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 13:01 by Niverio
Lovely puzzle :) My only concern is it would be pretty nice if you can make the f cage a bit more visible, it took me a while to realize there was actually a letter in that cage :D
**
Thank you for your comment, Niverio! I am glad that you liked the puzzle. Your concern is justified. I will see if I can maybe fix it with entering some spaces to shift the "f" a little more visible into the cage. (If anyone knows a more elegant solution, feel free to let me know.) Thank you for pointing out this visual issue.
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 13. June 2024, 00:07 by meggen033
Wow that was quite the journey of a puzzle! Loved the use of the disjoint group! Well done. Great backstory too. Just need to find the space pirate responsible for this intergalactic tom-foolery! I believe it was the notorious EE-One G. Gem! At least I've heard that's his call sign...
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Thank you for your fun comment, meggen033! I am glad that you liked the puzzle. And your hint might be useful, too. Let's hope for this poor space pirate that he's gone with the speed of light before Ukyo Jus can take some severe measures against him. :)
Kind regards, sujoyku
on 12. June 2024, 23:12 by sujoyku
fixed a typo, no changes to the contents of the puzzle
