Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

For the CTC Community Secret Santa, I was given the amazingly talented (rebel pig) glum_hippo as my Santee! I knew I must make a parity party puzzle but I needed a twist. Thank you to glum_hippo for allowing me to post and share his gift. Enjoy!


Rules: Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits separated by an X must sum to 10. Digits separated by a V must sum to 5. Not all Xs and Vs are necessarily given.

Draw a loop in the grid. The loop can only connect orthogonally between cells and loop cells cannot touch orthogonally. The loop must satisfy two properties:

1) The loop must pass through exactly one digit on each XV clue.

2) At least one of the digits on each XV clue equals the number of loop cells in the (up to) 9 surrounding cells, including itself (the digit doing this does not have to be the one that's on the loop).

Numbers outside the grid are Loop Parity Party clues. These clues give the sum of the digits ON THE LOOP up to and including the first odd or first even digit on the loop, starting in the direction of the clue. For example, a 15 at the bottom of a column could indicate something like 7-8, 8-7, 1-3-5-6 or 2-6-4-3 (among others) when reading the loop cells up that column... but not 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-6-3-4 etc, because the parity changes before the total 15 sum has been added. That is, the parity of the farthest digit must deviate from that of the others.

Note: If the clue is less than 10, it might simply indicate the value of the first cell. That is to say, you could be adding up zero odd and one even number, or vice versa.

F-puzzles link: https://f-puzzles.com/?id=2p959l4d
SudokuPad link: https://tinyurl.com/34kek7mv