Japanese Sum Cave Cipher #7: Slitherlink
(Published on 12. November 2022, 22:43 by KNT)
Japanese Sums: Blacken some cells and place digits from 1 to 9 in every other cell. Digits may not repeat in any row or column. The clues outside the grid indicate the sums of connected cells (with no blackened cells in between) in the correct order of their respective row or column. In each case, either all or no clues are given.
Cave: The not blackened cells must form a cave. I.e. all not blackened cells are orthogonally connected, and all blackened cells are orthogonally connected by other blackened cells to the perimeter of the grid.
Cipher: Each distinct letter represents some unique digit from 0 to 9. "?" is a stand in for any digit 0-9, but for a double digit number, the first digit may not be 0.
Variant:
Every 1, 2, and 3 in the grid is a valid slitherlink clue for the unique loop that divides the shaded and unshaded cells.
Please note that unlike the previous puzzles in this series, all digits are within the cave, as all cells part of the cave walls are empty.
Answer check is enabled with blue digits.
In this illustration, the loop, as well as the digits 1, 2, and 3, are marked in red for clarity.
Solution code: Row 4, Row 9, S for blackened cells
Comments
on 15. January 2024, 20:00 by Piatato
Awesome puzzle!
on 27. September 2023, 19:54 by Christounet
Superb puzzle, awesome combination of rules ! I'm a sucker for loop puzzles and this one did not disappoint ! Thanks :)
on 11. February 2023, 06:41 by Agent
Magnificent! The slitherlink variant did so much work. I've been sleeping on these for too long...
on 30. December 2022, 08:31 by Xendari
naturally, I broke the puzzle twice, but I found the actual solve path really nice! very scary ending :P
on 4. December 2022, 20:10 by Uhu
Wow, fantastic puzzle!
on 29. November 2022, 21:38 by filuta
this cave and Japanese combo feels so great, not too restrictive, but still very powerful at times, and the slitherlink adds even more depth and so much variability of the deductions, just amazing! very intuitive also, although the start and the end were hard for me.
I will wait with all the superlatives though until I try out more of this epic series :o)
on 24. November 2022, 20:49 by Phistomefel
What a wonderful way to spend the day. First I solved the example puzzle and I was immediately hooked, because it has such cool deductions. I also really appreciate that the ideas you showcased in the example puzzle played an important part in the actual puzzle, as well... only in a slightly more involved fashion. ;)
Really enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you so much for setting this beauty, KNT!
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This might sound strange, but I am actually extremely appreciative of your compliments towards the example puzzle. I intend for this series to go on for a while, and I hope new and old solvers can enjoy it long into the future. I'm trying to make the example puzzles for all of these with marginally high effort, and I'm glad I have confirmation that at least one of them is cool :)
And of course, I'm glad you enjoyed the real puzzle too :-)
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Out of curiosity: Did you first set the actual puzzle or the example puzzle? I am asking, because I usually set the example puzzle first to get a feel for the ruleset and re-use parts of it in the acual puzzle, and your example puzzle had a similar feel to it.
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Yeah, I do the same thing probably 90% of the time. Making the examples first help me actually learn some of the more basic interactions of the ruleset. However this puzzle in particular was directly inspired by ID=0004MM, so I sort of knew some deductions I wanted to include before I even began setting.
on 19. November 2022, 19:10 by marcmees
not a fan of slithers and not easy to get started. Glad I persisted. Incredible puzzle. thanks
on 15. November 2022, 10:05 by Vebby
Great logical path! Enjoyed it more and more as it progressed, really satisfying solve. Thanks KNT! :)
on 14. November 2022, 21:16 by Niverio
Such a breeze to solve, not difficult at any step, and never trivial either, just a fun joyful ride :)
on 14. November 2022, 16:29 by MagnusJosefsson
Great puzzle! Yet another impressive and creative combination!
on 13. November 2022, 14:50 by Myxo
Great puzzle!
on 13. November 2022, 14:37 by ibag
Very nice. And much easier than the other ones.
on 13. November 2022, 11:39 by Jesper
Loved it, thanks! Clever break-in that in retrospect seems obvious.
on 13. November 2022, 04:08 by ONeill
Very nice! The combination of puzzles felt natural and was very enjoyable :) Thanks!
