Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

tl;dr Penpa+ solving link. Sudokupad solving link.

I am excited to present the 15th chapter of the Zodiac Project, initiated by ViKingPrime. I knew from the outset that I wanted to try making a puzzle which doesn't involve sudoku, and I think I found a rule-set that worked well with the disjoint set constraint. Thank you MaizeGator for nominating me to make this puzzle! I'm excited to announce that Nordy will be setting the next chapter of the Zodiac Project.

I investigated the etymology of the word 'zodiac' and learned that it's a loanword from the ancient Greek "zoidiakos kyklos" which means "cycle of animals". This puzzle is about cycles. I hope you enjoy it!

Rules:

• Yajilin variant (where shaded cells can touch): the grid consists of three types of cells: 'clue cells', 'shaded cells', and 'loop cells'. You will use the clue cells to determine shaded cells, and draw a loop through all remaining cells. The loop travels orthogonally through the centers of cells and may not branch or cross itself. Two shaded cells are given.
• Disjoint clues: place the digits 0 to 8 in the nine brown clue cells with no repeats. Each digit counts two things: first, it is the number of shaded cells in the eight neighbouring cells. Second, it is the total number of shaded cells in all indicated directions. (This count is not obstructed by any other cell-types.)
• For clarity, clue cells are not considered shaded, and cannot be shaded.

I've added a small example puzzle with given clues, which will hopefully clarify the rules.

Solve Zodiac Project: Kyklos on Penpa+!

Solve Zodiac Project: Kyklos on Sudokupad!

The previous parts of the series are:

Chapter 1: Orion's Belt by ViKingPrime
Chapter 2: Counting Castles by marty_sears
Chapter 3: Derezzed by heliopolix
Chapter 4: Rodd Stevens by 99%Sneaky
Chapter 5: Phase Shift by meggen033
Chapter 6: Cage Decoder by sujoyku
Chapter 7: Star Chart by Flinty
Chapter 8: Parity Expedition by palpot
Chapter 9: Suguru's Surge by gdc
Chapter 10: Minefield Maneuvers by SamuPiano
Chapter 11: Ponta Delgada by Florian Wortmann
Chapter 12: Lost in Space by lerroyy
Chapter 13: Gemini by Christounet
Chapter 14: Sagittarius by Maizegator

The next setter will be Nordy, and his disjoint set is shown below. I'm very excited to see what Nordy will come up with next!