Tile Mover Sudoku
(Published on 2. August 2021, 11:17 by Sktx)
==== LINKS ====
F-puzzles link
CtC app link
SudokuLab link
Penpa+ link
As a training or stand-alone puzzle : 4x4 training puzzle page
==== RULES ====
9x9 Sudoku rules apply : fill the grid with digits 1 to 9 appearing each once in every row, column, and 3x3 box.
Tile-Mover rules apply :
- cells with cages are tiles.
- A tile marked with digit n must be moved n orthogonal steps away, and at the end of its path the digit n must appear.
- A tile path doesn't need to be a shortest path to its end, and can touch itself, but can NOT use twice the same cell, and can not go back to its starting position (no loop or backtrack on the path).
- Each tile must be moved all the way at once, so it needs to have a full free path to its final position.
- Tiles can not go through dark grey cells, nor through other tiles. Thus, before being moved, a tile blocks its cell for all the other tiles. Once a tile has been moved, it frees its starting cell, but is blocking its end cell for the rest of the solve.
- It is up to the solver to decide in which order the tiles should be moved.
- Not all possible tiles are given.
Note : Using coloring is recommended to keep track of what is blocking the path, and what is not anymore !
==== ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ====
I must thank Trevor Tao and his/her "Order is important" Sudoku variant for the inspiration, proving that time/order of steps can play a role in sudoku variants. He also crash-tested a first broken version of the puzzle, so big thanks to him. Also thanks to the other testers (Rotobagel, Sir Schmoopy...)
Solution code: Digits from row 5 (left to right) and then column 5 (top to bottom). No space, 18 digits total.
Comments
on 10. November 2022, 11:52 by AstralSky
Very interesting variant.
on 28. September 2021, 19:26 by Hausigel_mod
Labels changed
on 4. August 2021, 20:13 by XeonRisq
The ruleset is quite interesting. Reminds me of the hand puzzle I had as a kid with the tiles 1-15 and you had to move them around the board one adjacent spot at a time. (I believe it's called a schylling puzzle)
Once you figure out you have to slide the tiles to their final resting cell, in the proper order, you start grinding through the different logic paths.
Easy to start, difficult to complete. VERY nice construction, very satisfying solve.
on 3. August 2021, 10:54 by PrimeWeasel
Even though it looks daunting, it actually isn't that hard. It's easy to screw up though :) Highly recommended!
on 2. August 2021, 17:52 by SudokuExplorer
Excellent puzzle with a very fun ruleset, thanks! The penpa+ link was very handy for this one, however you missed out the given digits. It is fairly easy to get started but gets a bit trickier in the middle, so I think the difficulty should be at most 4 stars. Again, thanks for the puzzle-solving joy :-)
@SudokuExplorer : wow, thanks a lot for your comment ! I am glad you enjoyed it :). And thank you for notifying me of the forgotten givens in Penpa, I changed the link and it should be alright now !
