Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Snake Sweeper Sudoku

(Published on 13. June 2020, 05:52 by glum_hippo)

Snake-sweeper Sudoku

This puzzle combines Killer Sudoku, Minesweeper, and Snake rules.

  1. All cell contents obey normal Sudoku rules: no repeated digits in the rows, columns, or 3x3 boxes.
  2. There is a snake in the grid. It starts in a corner cell (R1C1, R1C9, R9C1 or R9C9), and visits all 9 boxes at least once. The snake never crosses itself, nor does it touch itself — not even diagonally.
  3. Pale red cells, which do not lie on the snake, contain accurate 'snake-sweeper' clues. They indicate the number of orthogonally OR diagonally neighboring cells that are occupied by the snake (compare the popular 'Minesweeper' game). These 14 snake-sweeper cells contain 2 lots of the digits 1-7. (By definition they cannot contain an 8 or 9). Filling these cells and placing the snake must happen simultaneously. The sweeper values are the final sudoku values.
  4. The snake is 35 cells long, and can be broken up into 7 unique 'linear' pentomino segments: one each of I, L, N, U, V, W, and Z (i.e., all the ones without branches or 2x2 regions, see illustration). For the U, N, and W pentominoes a cage sum has been provided.
  5. The contents of these linear pentomino segments obey certain restrictions:
    • Two segments contain one repeat digit each. All others, including the N, are true 'killer cages' (no repeat digits).
    • For three segments (not the N), the parities of the head/tail cells differ from those of the middle (e.g., 1-2-4-6-5 or 8-5-7-9-6).
    • NOTE: Any pentomino could be in both these categories.
  6. The nonlinear pentominoes F, P, T, X, and Y must also fit into the grid, without overlapping one another, the snake, nor the red cells. Some snake-sweeper clues are provided here, too (two in the F and one each in the P and X), which help to further narrow down the position of the snake. However, most of these are not the final sudoku values. If the snake-sweeper value of a pentomino cell does happen to match the final sudoku value —and only then! — it has been marked blue.
  7. All 12 pentominoes can be freely rotated or reflected in order to take up their final positions in the grid.

Once these pentominoes are placed and the values of the blue cells applied, it's just normal Sudoku with cage sums! Enjoy, and thanks for trying my new puzzle!

Solution code: The 6th row and the 1st column (18 digits total)

Last changed on on 6. February 2022, 17:11

Solved by Puzzle_Maestro, NikolaZ, bob, zorant, boredduck, Lara Croft, davidagg, MagnusJosefsson, Debrutsid, ffricke, Vebby, ildiko, starelev5, DiMono
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Comments

Last changed on 23. October 2023, 20:58

on 23. October 2023, 20:16 by DiMono
Very fun puzzle. So many rules. :D
_
Thank you for solving! Yeah, this is definitely of a different era.

on 23. August 2021, 11:25 by ffricke
Ein sehr lohnenswertes Rätsel, welches mehr Löser verdient. Alle Regeln werden benötigt, und das macht gerade sehr viel Spaß, diese an den notwendigen Stellen auch einzustzen.

Last changed on 5. August 2020, 15:47

on 8. July 2020, 18:50 by glum_hippo
Danke LaraCroft, Sie sprechen mir aus dem Herzen. Ich nehme es aber weiterhin niemandem übel, wenn sie stillschweigend weiterklicken :) Mir hatte es an diesem Tag gefallen, eine Art Rube-Goldberg-Gerät zusammenzustricken.

on 8. July 2020, 17:34 by Lara Croft
Klasse! Die Kombination hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Lasst euch nicht vom Text abschrecken. Es ist nicht so kompliziert, wie es aussieht, und man versteht schnell, worum es geht.

Last changed on 15. June 2020, 20:04

on 15. June 2020, 20:04 by glum_hippo
@Puzzle_Maestro, I'm honored to have you as my first solver, I'm enjoying your Kakuro series (among othes) a lot. As for this snake-sweeper, I can't fault people for finding the rule set a bit daunting. I do think it's worth the effort & am glad to have someone corroborating.

on 15. June 2020, 19:58 by Puzzle_Maestro
Good fun! Certainly deserves more than 1 solver.

Last changed on 14. June 2020, 06:42

on 14. June 2020, 06:02 by Richard
Wow!
Incredible that you stumbled over that puzzle after all those years! :-)

@Richard: Yes, the miracle of properly tagged Rätsel haha

on 13. June 2020, 17:49 by glum_hippo
Thanks for the inspiration go to the Pentomino Minesweeper series from @Richard: https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=00020Q et al.

Difficulty:5
Rating:80 %
Solved:14 times
Observed:5 times
ID:0003MZ

Puzzle combination Puzzle variant New Pentominoes

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Solution code:

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