Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Candy Cane Cave [Secret Santa 2024]

(Published on 29. December 2024, 03:30 by Calesch)

This puzzle was made for the CTC Secret Santa 2024 event as a gift for Agent, who gave permission for me to publish it here. As my first Secret Santa event and the first non-sudoku I've set, this was a very fun experience and probably my favorite puzzle I've made so far :)


Penpa+ SudokuPad



Rules:
Fillomino:
Divide the grid into regions of 1 or more orthogonally connected cells, such that no two regions of the same size touch orthogonally. Enter a number in each cell equal to the size of its region.

Cave:
Shade some cells such that all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected, and all groups of orthogonally connected shaded cells connect to an edge of the grid.
Each region is entirely one color (shaded/unshaded).
Candy canes are shaded, and Christmas trees are unshaded. The number in a cane or tree indicates how many cells of its color it can see horizontally or vertically combined, including itself. Cells of the other color block the vision.

Japanese Sums:
Clues outside the grid give the sums of contiguous runs of cells of the same color within the corresponding row or column. For each row or column with clues, all runs are represented by a clue and in the correct order (left to right/top to bottom). However, a '...' can represent any number of clues, including none. Some clues have digits replaced by question marks, but a 2-digit number cannot begin with a 0.

Simple Loop:
Draw a loop that moves orthogonally between the centers of cells, without intersecting itself. The loop visits all unshaded cells and does not enter shaded cells.

Solution code:
*unshaded* numbers in row 3 followed by *shaded* numbers in row 10
(no spaces)


Solved by askaksaksask, Tom-dz, Agent, ONeill, tuturitu, MaizeGator, Piatato, dogfarts, sth, jkuo7, puzzler05, abed hawila
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Comments

on 31. December 2024, 00:59 by Piatato
Very cool puzzle!

on 30. December 2024, 17:14 by MaizeGator
I made this puzzle much harder than it needed to be by 1) forgetting about the loop rule and 2) ignoring the implications of the loop rule. But, once I got out of my own way, I really liked the interaction between the cave and loop rulesets.

on 29. December 2024, 15:56 by ONeill
Cool puzzle!

on 29. December 2024, 15:12 by Agent
Very cool stuff, great connectivity logic with the loop parity! Thanks a lot for this puzzle gift!

on 29. December 2024, 06:22 by askaksaksask
Incredible. I love the fillomino-japanese sums interactions here, but the cage and loop building really put this one over the top. There are some beautiful deductions in here. The break-in isn't too unyielding, but there is a consistent resistance throughout the puzzle...I found the last third or so of my solve to be quite tricky. There are some GREAT clues that come around in the latter part of the solve. The Secret Santa this year has given us some incredible puzzles, and this one is a wonderful addition. Thank you!

Difficulty:5
Rating:N/A
Solved:12 times
Observed:1 times
ID:000L9Q

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Solution code:

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