[TSL][S1T6] Across the Stars
(Published on 30. July 2025, 17:07 by The Book Wyrm)
This puzzle was created for the Skunkworks League. The prompt for this round was to create a puzzle that uses a 9x9 grid, where the only numerical clues used are 3,6,17,17,34 and 45 (the winning IDs of the first 5 turns).
Rules:
- Two spaceships, A and B, go on a tour of the 9x9 grid.
- The spaceships move orthogonally, and never move onto a space that is occupied or has been moved through by one of the spaceships.
- Once the spaceships have reached their destinations, they stop moving and remain in their locations.
- When the spaceships are both finished moving, all cells in the grid have been passed through by one of the spaceships (excepting the start/end cells).
- The spaceships always take one year to move from one cell to the next.
- However, through the use of time dilation, from the perspective of the spaceships only one year passes along any straight segment of the journey, regardless of length.
- The positions of the spaceships at 6 different points in time are given. Two of these are from the perspective of ship A, two from the perspective of ship B, and two from the perspective of a stationary observer.
- T gives the time in years since the spaceships started (at T=1, both ships are at their starting locations, and then they both start moving continuously at the speeds described above).
- Using the empty grid given, reconstruct the paths of both spaceships.
For aditional clarity an example of a valid grid has been given. The path of ship A is marked in green, the path of ship B is marked in red.
Penpa link: Click Here
Solution code: For each row of the grid top to bottom, write the number of turns made by ship A followed by the number of turns made by ship B (for the example this would be 2140200202)
Comments
on 4. October 2025, 10:22 by Piatato
Awesome! Very imaginative ruleset, and a very smooth yet satisfying solve path!
on 1. September 2025, 18:33 by sfushidahardy
Took me two hours to truly understand the rules, and then it solved itself in fifteen minutes. Truly brilliant puzzle.
on 24. August 2025, 01:40 by damasosos92
A perfect puzzle perfectly executed.
on 1. August 2025, 18:05 by Justalilguy
Brilliant and very hard
on 31. July 2025, 22:02 by D00m
In the example, shouldn't B be in R5C4 at T=4 in A's perspective?
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No, the example is correct. At T=4 for ship A, it has moved 4 cells, and since ship B is moving at the same rate it has also moved 4 cells to reach r5c3.
on 31. July 2025, 19:52 by Agent
Exceptional puzzle! A rare instance where the ruleset seems completely absurd at first, but once you understand the implications it's actually super smooth and all the deductions follow naturally from each other.
on 30. July 2025, 18:15 by ThePedallingPianist
Absolutely mind blowing puzzle! It took a while to internalise the rules, but once I did, every step was surprisingly smooth and utterly beautiful. Genius setting!
