Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

This puzzle was created for Dumediat during the Secret Satan event. Thanks to Dumediat for letting me publish this puzzle here and for helping me improving the clarity of the ruleset.

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Additionally, create a snake loop according to the following rules:

• A 2x2 area of the grid may not contain more than 2 loop cells.
• The loop must be symmetrical with respect to the fifth column (eg, a loop segment drawn from r2c2 to r1c3 would also require a loop segment to be drawn from r2c8 to r1c7).
• The loop is a German whisper.

For clarity, the loop may move orthogonally or diagonally, and the loop may touch (but not overlap or intersect) itself if allowed by other rules.

Furthermore, there are 9 cells occupied by arrows; each of the digits 1 to 9 appears exactly once in an arrow cell.
The digits in the arrow cells indicate the number of cells on the loop visible in the direction of the arrows, including the cell containing the arrows.

Each arrow with an arrow cell must see at least one loop cell, which may be the arrow cell itself; for arrow cells with more than one arrow, only one of the arrows may be counted as pointing at its own cell.
For example, if the N-facing arrow in r5c9 saw only itself as a loop cell (no loop cells in r1c9, r2c9, r3c9, or r4c9), then the SW-facing arrow in r5c9 would need to see at least one loop cell in r6c8, r7c7, r8c6, and r9c5.

Moreover, the digits in the arrow cells cannot be placed in the directions indicated by the arrows.

The puzzle is available online via CTC-App