Trail of Prometheus (Secret Satan)
(Published on 14. January 2025, 09:00 by Agent)
This was my puzzle gift for MaizeGator during last year's Secret Satan event. In the spirit of the event, the puzzle is very challenging, but I think all the deductions are fair once you understand how the rules work.
Rules
- Shade some cells in the grid so that all shaded cells are orthogonally connected and no 2x2 area is fully shaded.
- Draw a non-intersecting loop that travels diagonally between pairs of diagonally adjacent cells.
- Groups of orthogonally connected unshaded cells form islands. Clues cannot be shaded, and each island must contain exactly 2 numbers, which indicate the size of the island and the number of cells visited by the loop on that island. A "?" may represent any positive integer.
- Place some ships (black circles) on some shaded cells in the grid so that the loop travels exclusively on island cells and ships. The total number of ships is indicated outside the grid.
- The loop must visit at least one cell on each island.
Trail of Deucalion (7x7)
Trail of Prometheus (15x20)
Solution code: The number of shaded cells in each column, from left to right
Comments
on 16. February 2025, 06:14 by askaksaksask
I really enjoyed this. The hilarity of the example puzzle relative to the main event will sit with me for a while. Certainly this is brilliant, and it took me a while to unpack just how clever this puzzle was, given how everything interacts. Thank you for this!
on 14. February 2025, 09:02 by Silverstep
Perfect, chef's kiss, 10/10 no notes.
on 31. January 2025, 21:47 by Niverio
Brilliant, brilliant. The ruleset implications are just perfect.
on 31. January 2025, 05:54 by the_cogito
What a puzzle! Super fun, intricate, and with a lot to learn and absorb throughout!
on 18. January 2025, 10:44 by MagnusJosefsson
Absolutely amazing! Be prepared to spend some time analyzing the ruleset and its implications before getting started. The hard (but incredibly satisfying!) part is making a few key observations, whereas the path through the puzzle overall is very flowy and pleasant. Highly recommended!
on 17. January 2025, 05:07 by ONeill
I’m blown away by this ruleset and the puzzle. I came back to the puzzle a few times before I finally understood the implications of the rules, and I’m glad I persisted, it’s really interesting right until the end :)
on 16. January 2025, 08:14 by RJBlarmo
Amazing puzzle! Even after "understanding" the ruleset I still found this pretty challenging and had myself questioning if I really did understand the rules!
on 14. January 2025, 15:43 by goodcity
What a beast! It was indeed challenging to grasp the implications of the ruleset, but once understood, the puzzle unfolded nicely.
I'm glad I committed to testing it!
on 14. January 2025, 15:14 by MaizeGator
This puzzle was a perfect gift for me, containing all the qualities I love about Agent puzzles. As stated, the interactions between the rules are essential to understand, but once you do, the puzzle basically solves itself.
For anyone interested, I’ve made a solution video, which I will post as a hidden comment. I’m also happy to provide a nudge if needed (reach out on discord)
