Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

I was quietly setting a new puzzle with japanese sums, when a snake appeared from nowhere and deconstructed the whole grid in no time. While I was contemplating the ruins of my puzzle, it occured to me the snake had actually helped me create an original puzzle, combining two of my favorite rules, snake and deconstruction. So, here is the result of our collaboration, we hope you enjoy it ! Testing feedback placed difficulty between 4 and 5. Have fun solving !

The puzzle :

Play on Penpa (answer check with green line for the snake)

Play on Sudokupad (no answer check)

Rules :

- Normal sudoku deconstruction apply : Fill the grid with 9 non-overlapping 3x3 square regions, such that each region contains the digits 1-9 once each and no digit repeats in any row or column. Cells outside regions do not contain digits.

- Snake : Travelling through the grid is a snake, moving orthogonally from cell to cell. It may travel freely inside or outside regions. It may touch itself diagonally but not orthogonally. Its head and tail have to be located.

- Japanese Sums clues : clues above and to the left of the grid give the sum of the connected digits (in the column or the row) that are NOT on the snake, in the correct order. Note : if there is an empty cell (outside a region) and/or a snake cell between 2 digits, they are not considered connected. For a row or column, either all or no sums are given. A "..." means any number of clues, including none. Clues are encrypted. Each distinct letter represents some unique digit from 1-9. "?" is a stand in for any digit 0-9, but for a double digit number, the first digit may not be 0.

Example puzzle (without the cipher) :

Play on Penpa (answer check)

Play on Sudokupad (no answer check)