A Zip of Blood (Vampires, Zippers)
(Published on 13. March 2024, 17:46 by gdc)
After S-cells, negators, doublers and mirrored digits I waned to combine vampires with zipper lines. See the example puzzle below for an example puzzle with vampire cells and zipper lines. Thanks to the CtC-discord for testing.
- Normal Sudoku rules apply.
- The grid is partially covered in fog. Placing correct digits reveals more clues.
- 9 cells in the grid (one per row, column and box) are vampire cells. Each digit 1-9 appears in a vampire cell. 9 cells in the grid are prey cells which follow the same restrictions as vampire cells. A vampire cell can't also be a prey cell.
- Prey cells have a value of zero. Vampire cells use the sum of the digits in the vampire cell and prey cell within the same box as their value.
- Values an equal distance to the circled center of a zipper line sum to the value of the central cell.
Example
In this example, vampires are highlighted in red and prey are highlighted in blue. Each digit appears exactly once in a red cell and exactly once in a blue cell. The short zipper line contains no modifiers and can be read as 3=1+2. The long line has a vampire with value 5 (1+4) in its center. The first two equidistant pairs (23, 14) each sum to 5. At the end of the long line, there is a prey cell (value 0) opposite a vampire cell (value 2+3) so the values also add to 5.
Solve Video
Click here to see cornish john live solving this puzzle on YouTube.
Solution code: column 8, top to bottom
Comments
on 27. March 2025, 02:17 by gdc
add link to live solve (YouTube)
on 25. March 2025, 07:33 by QuiltyAsCharged
A brilliant and hearty challenge!
on 25. March 2024, 04:38 by gdc
Thanks @Deino42! I totally understand how the overlapping lines can be quite taxing to scan and reason about. My thinking here was that the local nature of the fog balances these things out and the modifiers quickly become relevant that way.
on 16. March 2024, 14:22 by blackjackfitz
Great puzzle! Several beautiful bits that caught me completely off guard.
on 14. March 2024, 14:25 by Franjo
Solving this puzzle was a great pleasure for me, though It was quite hard for me to follow the path finding the right deductions. But everything was totally logical. Thank you so much for sharing.
on 14. March 2024, 01:52 by Deino42
This puzzle was an approachable and enjoyable solve despite taking me a bit, and I don’t typically enjoy zipper sudokus. (Specifically ones with overlapping lines) However, it worked well for this puzzle!
on 13. March 2024, 18:13 by vitaminz
This puzzle has lots of excellent surprises. Highly recommend.
