Santa's Banana Split Slip and Slide
(Published on 27. December 2022, 21:40 by thoughtbyte)
This puzzle was created for Aspartagcus for the Cracking the Cryptic Secret Santa and shared with their permission. Happy Holidays!
Normal Sudoku rules apply. Additionally:
Chocolate Banana: Shade some cells so that all areas of orthogonally connected shaded cells are rectangular (this is chocolate) and all areas of orthogonally connected unshaded cells are not rectangular (this is bananas). A clue inside the grid represents the sum of its group of shaded/unshaded cells. Digits cannot repeat inside groups of shaded/unshaded cells
Slippery Banana Splits Line (Icebarn): Draw a path through the centers of some cells, entering the grid at the arrow pointing into the grid and exiting at the arrow pointing out of the grid. The path must travel through all of the arrows in the indicated direction. Two perpendicular line segments may intersect each other only on chocolatey (icy) cells, but they may not turn at their intersection or otherwise overlap. The path may not turn on chocolatey (icy) cells, and each orthogonally connected group of chocolatey (icy) cells must be passed through at least once.
Clues outside the grid indicate the sum of the chocolate cells, banana cells, or cells along the slippery banana split line in their corresponding row or column. If an outside clue refers to the icebarn line, then it shows the sum of all line segments together in that row or column. If a column or row has two clues they must refer to a different set of cells.
Solution code: Digits on the Icebarn line in rows 1 and 5.
Comments
on 31. December 2022, 07:00 by henrypijames
I still think I'm not understanding the rules right, because I keep breaking the puzzle right from the start (like, at least eight different times). An example puzzle would be really great to illustrate the rules.
on 31. December 2022, 05:29 by Aspartagcus
I was so happy to get this puzzle as a present for Christmas! It was my favorite type of puzzle - sudoku pencil puzzle hybrid with shading and loop logic, and at just the right difficulty. Thoroughly enjoyed solving it! Thanks, thought byte! :)
on 31. December 2022, 02:17 by kjholt
This was very difficult but so worth it! Please make more hybrids like this because I loved this.
on 28. December 2022, 15:08 by Vebby
Very nice concept! Note to future solvers: I got stuck towards the end because I forgot that areas without killer clues cannot have repeat digits too.
on 28. December 2022, 03:28 by King_Pusher
I am happy to be the first solver.
on 28. December 2022, 03:22 by King_Pusher
That was hard, I broke it plenty of times and made me very angry but it was worth it.
on 28. December 2022, 01:13 by thoughtbyte
edit rules for clarity
on 28. December 2022, 00:53 by henrypijames
The rules say "cells along the slippery banana split line in their corresponding row or column", but there could be more than one? In which case the clue refers to any of them, or all of them together?
thoughtbyte: all of them together, I will edit the rules to clarify this, thank you.
