RAT RUN 19: Brainwaves
(Eingestellt am 18. Dezember 2024, 01:00 Uhr von marty_sears)
- In this experiment, nine letters of the alphabet (to be determined) must be used to fill the grid so that no letter repeats in any row, column or 3x3 box.
- AIM OF EXPERIMENT: Finkz the rat must reach the cupcake by finding a path through the maze. The path must not visit any cell more than once, cross itself, or pass through any thick maze walls.
- As well as moving orthogonally, Finkz may move diagonally if there's a 2x2 space in which to do so, but may never pass diagonally through a round wall-spot on the corner of a cell.
- DYNAMIC FOG: Entering correct letters may clear fog somewhere in the maze. No guessing is necessary.
- CUE CARDS: Each pink cue card sits between two letters that both appear on that cue card.
- BRAINWAVE MONITORS: The faint light of 11 blue monitors can be seen through the fog; Finkz must visit all of these before reaching the cupcake. With any luck, they will provide an insight into her thoughts.
- TEST CONSTRAINT: 3x3 box borders divide Finkz' path into segments. If a segment contains more than one cell, then those cells must be visited in alphabetical order.
Lösungscode: The letters on the illuminated monitors, in the order visited
Kommentare
am 14. Januar 2025, 09:54 Uhr von novato
Amazing! Felt impossible almost to the last letter.
am 5. Januar 2025, 06:32 Uhr von Dasny
One of the best of the serie. Beautiful deductions in part 1. I don't know if it was intended but I abused a lot of the uniqueness of the puzzle to force Frinkz's path and deduce letters positions and order.
Marty: thankyou :) No, uniquesness deductions are never part of the intended solve path in my puzzles, I prefer Simon and Mark's ethos of proving to yourself there is a unique solution rather than assuming that fact and using it to solve. But if you are happy to use uniqueness deductions and you still get enjoyment from the puzzle then that's your call :)
am 30. Dezember 2024, 18:52 Uhr von mscha
Wow... It's been almost two weeks, and I've finally solved it. (Hadn't had time over Christmas, though.)
Tough, but awesome. Definitely the hardest Sudoku I've ever solved.
am 29. Dezember 2024, 14:42 Uhr von Silverbyte
Definitely a clear gap between the difficulty of figuring out the letters vs. solving the second half once you get them.
Even though I was stuck a bit in the beginning, I Loved the deductions needed in both parts a lot! Great work as always
am 24. Dezember 2024, 10:06 Uhr von madhupt
A work of art! Totally speechless by the sheer genius of it!
am 24. Dezember 2024, 01:12 Uhr von harwiltz
By far the hardest one yet for me. But it was all worth it for the final clue :)
Thanks for another masterpiece of a puzzle!
am 23. Dezember 2024, 17:11 Uhr von amchap
Beautiful. Fun. Hilarious.
am 23. Dezember 2024, 15:31 Uhr von cwk
The final disambiguation added at least a minute to my solve time as I was laughing so hard.
am 23. Dezember 2024, 00:20 Uhr von sujoyku
I got used to doubting myself, what is forced and what is not. But this was an entirely new level of being lost. Somehow I came out and I don't know yet if I have solved the puzzle or if the puzzle has solved me. When I finally knew which letters needed to be used, it started to appear a bit less impossible. But I got stuck a few times after that as well. Maybe I am overestimating, but I could not give anything but 5 stars for difficulty. Marty, you are so good it becomes frightening. :D
am 22. Dezember 2024, 23:00 Uhr von ChristopherStanlake
Another great puzzle! I was stuck on this one for a while (I was dipping in and out of it during a hectic build-up-to-Christmas week). Until I realised I had made a silly mistake by not observing that one of my pencil-marked letters was not in the given cue card! Clearly, like Finkz, I am not used to letters in sudokus! Once this was noticed I got through the rest relatively quickly and was excited to see what Finkz spelt out for us... one can only wonder what this message implies for the future of the series...
am 22. Dezember 2024, 19:30 Uhr von Kriodeco
This puzzle was extremely difficult to solve, although every step of the way I felt like I was making good deductions. Turns out, the letters were making it difficult for me to recognize alternatives. I got to the final note card 10 times with errors that made not work. I realized there was a certain vertical triple that fooled me into thinking something wrong. Very fun eventual solve because all the clues were there in plain sight yet hard to see.
am 22. Dezember 2024, 15:19 Uhr von Cantabrigiensis
A chap from Korea has published a video of his solve:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc1XXpB3cmU
Go to settings and select autogenerate Korean subtitles with translation to English or other language of your choice!
am 22. Dezember 2024, 13:13 Uhr von Hamsterbase
Loved this, although right at the upper limit of my ability to solve. In fact, Finkz made a couple of wrong turns at her first two attempts, and had to go all the way back to the beginning. Still, it made for a delightful afternoon of puzzling over a couple of sessions. Many thanks.
am 21. Dezember 2024, 09:30 Uhr von michielbrinkers
I've just learned you can connect a bluetooth keyboard on ios using the accessibility options! Now let's see if I can solve this puzzle :D
am 20. Dezember 2024, 22:37 Uhr von firespire
I have an very old Android device so I've got the 'Hacker's Keyboard' app installed and I've enabled it as my keyboard of choice in the settings, I've turned on the option in the app settings to allow me to pull it up from the notification panel when I need to use it. I'm just lacking the brain cells to solve a 4 star difficulty puzzle.
(Apparently this does not work on newer versions of Android 12+ and I don't know if there are other third party keyboard apps you can call up manually. Hopefully Sven can call up the standard keyboard in letter mode.)
am 20. Dezember 2024, 21:12 Uhr von NordenShield
What an absolute masterpiece this series is in all aspects, from logical construction to character development. I'm amazed.
am 20. Dezember 2024, 17:12 Uhr von LuanMerlin
I almost gave up shortly after I started the puzzle and I'm glad that in the end I didn't. I really, really loved this puzzle.
am 20. Dezember 2024, 09:52 Uhr von PjoeterBliep
I have been able to solve it on my phone by connecting it to a keyboard, good thing everything is USB C now.
Really loved it. Made some wrong deductions when trying to decide which letters are used, but after that the solve was very nice!
Loved the ending where at first I thought I was stuck, but was able to disambiguate after looking more carefully.
am 20. Dezember 2024, 03:50 Uhr von antiknight
Cool ideas!
am 20. Dezember 2024, 02:08 Uhr von JamesMeowriarty
The puzzle itself is amazing, possibly one of my favorites in the serie, but I almost gave up before I even started because the app doesn't support azerty keyboard. It made it extra hard to play, but my love for Finkz took over and made it worth the hassle.
am 20. Dezember 2024, 01:26 Uhr von DonQuichopp
Once another wonderful puzzle. Thank you so much Marty!
I couldn't solve it at the pool with my mobile, so I had to stay up late on the laptop, while my wife was sleeping. But it was worth it every minute.
I think I solved it fairly quickly (counter didn't work, but I think it was about 2 hours).
The letters flowed quite nicely and I only got stuck towards the end for a short while until I found the correct deduction.
Now there'll be one more day at the pool, booringly reading a book and in the evening I'll enjoy CtC Simon's friday solve.
Aaaaand then I'll paitently wait for x-mas, not so much for the festivities but for the last puzzle.
I saw a hint of you Marty about a phase 3, I think, the best present for christmas would be you officially anouncing another 10 of your awesome puzzles.
I am no big sudoku solver, but I think this might be the most enjoyable, most beautiful, most well written series of puzzles I've ever come across.
Thank you so much for sharing your genius with us! It's been awesome to follow Finkz' 19 past solves.
am 19. Dezember 2024, 21:04 Uhr von symbolic23
easily the hardest for me so far, but still very good
am 19. Dezember 2024, 18:42 Uhr von jakestilesowen
Definitely my new favorite rat run! Marty did such an excellent job! A fun amount of challenge and a wonderful amount of fun!
And the dynamic fog was very cool.
am 19. Dezember 2024, 15:24 Uhr von Klausku
This one was very hard for me. It took me almost 3 hours. Had to start over, because I couldn‘t find my error that only showed almost at the end. For me letters are more complicated than digits. But Finkz led me through, unafraid of anything as usual. She seems to like me. Great puzzle, Marty!
am 19. Dezember 2024, 10:54 Uhr von misha
Wow! Just Wow.
am 19. Dezember 2024, 10:41 Uhr von AsgarArn
very nice, have not played that many dynamic fog, fun! letters don't appear or are solved by me that much since I usually solve on mobile and that, forced be to the computer since I have not found a way to solve on phone.
am 19. Dezember 2024, 08:26 Uhr von AsgarArn
Is there a way to get the letters in the phone web app, or do i have to solve at the computer?
Marty: at the moment I believe the mobile version only lets you type the letters A-I so unfortunately won't let you play this episode yet. But Sven has said this is on his list of things to add for the mobile version, so hopefully it will be playable on mobile soon...
am 19. Dezember 2024, 07:35 Uhr von bplo13
I hope this series never ends. This one took me a while but I enjoy every minute I spend with my little buddy Finkz
am 18. Dezember 2024, 22:42 Uhr von Greenansatsu
I think I get some subtext to the story going on here and wasn't expecting the lore to be this deep as well. This puzzle was definitely tricky but I blame myself for missing a huge clue to narrow down the letters.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 22:17 Uhr von droidstr
It was very sad to find out I messed up in the very end. Should try it again tomorrow. Upd: looks like I'we got the same issue as @CorpJigsQuand in his comment above, but just didn't find this message :).
Done it with some stupid typo at very end again.
Good puzzle wiht bad impression left.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 22:02 Uhr von Big Tiger
I really wanted to like it. I was enjoying it for a bit ... then got stuck ... then got HOPELESSLY stuck. I'll just wait for Simon to do a video on it.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 21:57 Uhr von mir85
Loved it! Made a lot of mistakes along the way, but got to the cupcake in the end <3
am 18. Dezember 2024, 21:04 Uhr von Franjo
This was very tricky! In the end I could solve this masterpiece, though it was so irritating not clearing any fog for quite a number of steps... Thank you!
am 18. Dezember 2024, 18:27 Uhr von AshBrown
Great as always, not horrendous after the break in but still took me 2.5 hrs
am 18. Dezember 2024, 17:40 Uhr von sorryimLate
I'm not sure how difficult this is, but it took a looong time because I'm sooo slooow with letters. Fascinating puzzle as expected.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 17:02 Uhr von Samoth
The end of this puzzle cements it as quite possibly my favorite thus far, even if it took me forever and a day to figure out how to get there. Fantastic as always!
am 18. Dezember 2024, 15:39 Uhr von teff
i would die for finkz
am 18. Dezember 2024, 14:57 Uhr von HumanBirdsong
A beautiful puzzle, as always!
am 18. Dezember 2024, 13:45 Uhr von mscha
Oof, this is hard... I've got three letters and a few tiny conclusions about the path. And now I'm completely stuck.
I must be missing something; 45 people have been able to solve it so far.
Lovely ruleset, though. Very different from any earlier Rat Run.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 13:35 Uhr von davidemsa
This puzzle has the wildest ruleset of the Rat Run series and I love the creativity. Having to determine which letters to use gives the same effect as a mean mini in a full sized grid, I've never seen that.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 12:40 Uhr von wuc
Masterpiece puzzle. Agree on the 150% rating. Took me longer than usual. But again the new ruleset makes it so amazing to solve. Great work. Thanks a lot.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 11:09 Uhr von Nairurian
Finally got around to a computer so I could solve it. I like the concept, it threw me a bit at first (and I pencil marked the entire grid since I find letters are harder to remember than numbers) but once I got the hang of it, it felt very smooth.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 10:17 Uhr von softie
Just incredible. I am amazed. This puzzle deserves a 150% rating. Such a fun and gratifying solve!
am 18. Dezember 2024, 08:34 Uhr von LehanLehan
Well that's annoying,I have no laptop
am 18. Dezember 2024, 05:31 Uhr von CFood
that was cool
i really liked the part when you had a fully complete set of candidates and the effect that had on the rest of the puzzle.
the hardest part of this puzzle is really just making sure my hand gets to the right part of the keyboard
am 18. Dezember 2024, 04:38 Uhr von Elker
Wow. I don’t know how come up with these amazing constructions. I can’t wait for number 20.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 04:08 Uhr von by81996672
Is it okay to go from Z to A?
Marty: no, that would be too naughty for words
am 18. Dezember 2024, 04:08 Uhr von Justalilguy
Aww, Finkz deserves a lot of cheese
am 18. Dezember 2024, 03:33 Uhr von OrestisLomis
Simply incredible how you can make me feel so smart by allowing for such elegance in impossible seeming puzzles. Never tedious, always brilliant. Loved it and well worth grabbing my laptop for.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 02:38 Uhr von sorryimLate
I guess there's no way to solve this on mobile, is there?
Marty: sadly not right now, but I believe Sven has it on his list to update the mobile functionality to include all letters of the alphabet
am 18. Dezember 2024, 02:37 Uhr von npinguy
i'm starting to feel something for this finkz
am 18. Dezember 2024, 02:36 Uhr von Nairurian
Well this is a bit of a bummer, is this not solvable on mobile? (I can only get the letters A-I to show on mobile)
Marty: I contacted Sven about this, hopefully this functionality will be updated soon. Sorry, I only found out about this problem after I had set it.
am 18. Dezember 2024, 01:08 Uhr von ChinStrap
The most experimental one yet, but I loved it! Maybe Finkz can do a cryptic crossword next...
am 18. Dezember 2024, 01:07 Uhr von ViKingPrime
Beautiful and unique.
