Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

This was a puzzle set for the Skunkworks League where the challenge was to create a response to Tom Rosenthal's The boy

Hence the way the rules are explained in the linked puzzle. In essence this is a modified German Whisper path puzzle with the circles acting as sweeper cells. There is a special digit in each box visited by the path and this special digit is always orthogonally adjacent to the 5 in the same box. There is also a special rule for the white dots, which split the path into three sections.

Here is the SudokuPad link: The boy: a journey of wonder and growth

Normal Sudoku rules apply

THE PATH

Trace a directed, orthogonally moving, non-intersecting path from the given 1 to the given 9.

The path acts as a German Whisper (adjacent digits differ by at least 5) except at the white dots.

The path can enter a box more than once except for the boxes containing the 1 and 9. Just one box is never visited by the path.

The path can touch itself orthogonally and diagonally.

WHITE DOTS

The path passes through the two white dots, which separate consecutive digits. In the segment of the path which joins the white dots, the last cell on the segment has a value one greater than the first cell on the segment. (Other pairs of consecutive digits are not necessarily marked with a dot)

THE BOX DIGITS

The path visits eight of the nine boxes of the grid. Each time the path enters a new box for the first time, that box is given a number – the first box visited is 1 (given), the second 2, the third 3 then 4,6,7,8,9 (given). This number appears on the path somewhere in that box. The box digits strictly increase along the path.

THE COMPANION DIGIT (5)

If a box contains a box digit, the digit 5 in that box is orthogonally adjacent to the box digit.

CIRCLES

None of the circles is on the path. The digit in a circle counts the number of path cells in the up to eight cells within a king’s move of the circle cell.