Shelob's Lair
(Published on 13. January 2025, 16:00 by Blobz)
Lord of the Rings Puzzle Pack
07 : Shelob's Lair
Image with kind permission from Ted Nasmith
Presently they were under the shadow, and there in the midst of it they saw the opening of a cave. "This is the way in," said Gollum softly. "This is the entrance to the tunnel."
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Shade some cells (the walls) such that the unshaded cells (the tunnels) form an orthogonally connected area (with no loops) where no 2x2 group of cells is either fully shaded or unshaded. Different parts of the tunnel may touch diagonally (checkerboard patterns ARE allowed). Note that walls do not need to connect to the edge of the grid.
The tunnels are completely tiled with non-overlapping dominoes. The first domino at the entrance to Shelob's Lair is shown.
Caged cells are always tunnel cells and indicate two things:
- the digit placed in the cage shows how many tunnel cells (including itself) can be seen orthogonally from that position (walls obstruct the view).
- the small clue in the corner of the cage shows the total sum of the corresponding domino.
ALL dominoes include a cage.
Digits bound together by a cobweb must be consecutive.
Have fun, leave a comment if you enjoy the puzzle!
Solution code: Row 4
Comments
on 6. September 2025, 18:29 by Tuanzi
I misunderstood the word "dominoes". Very nice puzzle, thank you!
on 6. September 2025, 14:30 by Tuanzi
It seems that I have misunderstood the rule, so that I cannot understand why R9C1 can be 11 and R9C2 can be 10.
on 14. January 2025, 16:02 by Franjo
Made the same mistake as wuc. But now I’m sure you don’t need the „ALL dominoes …“-rule. Great puzzle! Thank you for sharing.
on 14. January 2025, 14:28 by Blake Saligia
very easy if you have played tents puzzle
on 13. January 2025, 20:23 by wuc
Overlooked the all dominoes have a cage. Then the break in is 4*. Maybe the whole puzzle would work without? Got a lot easier when I saw it. Great series. Looking forward to every addition. Thx.
