The Mysterious Loop
(Published on 15. November 2024, 04:51 by Die Hard)
This puzzle took me over 6 months to create from the original idea. It is definitely challenging, but it is absolutely logically solvable, and I'd encourage you to give it a go.
If you are completely stuck, there are help videos below.
Rules
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Draw a closed loop that moves orthogonally or diagonally between the centers of no more than 23 cells. The loop passes through all boxes except box 5 (the shaded box).
The digit 1 appears on loop once, the digit in the circle appears on the loop twice, and every other digit N that appears anywhere on the loop appears on the loop N times.
Adjacent digits on the loop are different.
Box borders divide the loop into regions of equal sums.
Please leave a comment if you enjoy this puzzle.
Help Videos
If you are completely stuck, see the videos below:
Let me know how many help videos you needed to watch to solve the puzzle!
Solution code: All 9 digits in row one.
Comments
on 9. January 2025, 20:34 by Al Fresco
Great construction. Thanks
on 5. January 2025, 08:41 by sorryimLate
Very nice puzzle, that hopefully gets more solves. The counting rule and loop puzzles are my favourites, so for me this was 2*. Not trivial, but well telegraphed break-in and smooth solve. I only got stuck, because I missed the rule about adjacent digits on the loop. No videos needed. You probably don't want to scare people away with the 5* rating? Thanks!
on 2. December 2024, 02:20 by SeveNateNine
Tough break-in but totally fair. And the rest of the solve is quite smooth. Thanks!
on 24. November 2024, 04:44 by hepcecob
Surprised this had 0 solves in over a week... I found the puzzle not too difficult (required a bit over an hour to solve). Didn't need any videos.
Cool concept. And as you said: absolutely logically solvable.
on 22. November 2024, 06:55 by Die Hard
Added help videos.
on 19. November 2024, 08:48 by Die Hard
Updated rating.
