Crossing A38
(Published on 13. May 2025, 09:00 by Agent)
Draw a directed loop that travels orthogonally through the centers of all empty cells. The loop may cross itself, but may not turn at an intersection or otherwise overlap. The cell with the black circle is considered the starting point of the loop.
A pass allowing the loop to cross itself is received every time the loop visits a pass cell. A number clue N indicates that the Nth instance of a cell being visited in the (up to) eight cells surrounding that clue is a pass cell. Note that crosses are visited twice.
Every pass cell is indicated by at least one clue and every clue indicates all pass cells touching it. The loop may not cross itself on a pass cell.
The loop must then alternate between pass cells and crosses, starting with a pass cell from the black circle onwards and ending with a cross before returning to the black circle.
Solution code: The number of turns of the loop in each row, from top to bottom.
Comments
on 15. June 2025, 05:32 by askaksaksask
This was a very cool hybrid puzzle, and wonderfully set. I'll echo a sentiment below, I thought I had broken the puzzle on at least a few occasions, to realize later my logic was correct but...oh man, is the geometry of a self-intersecting directed loop interesting! I thought the logic here was really challenging, which made the solve all the more relieving. Consistent puzzle too, putting up a fight into the last quadrant... Bravo! Thank you!
on 24. May 2025, 12:04 by Piatato
Awesome!
on 22. May 2025, 08:27 by MagnusJosefsson
Absolutely brilliant! The most exciting and rewarding puzzle I have solved in a long time!
on 17. May 2025, 14:03 by ibag
A true masterpiece!
on 17. May 2025, 11:32 by tuace
What a fantastic puzzle. Many thanks for this variant.
I had the same or at least almost the same idea years ago. I can no longer explain why nothing came of it, especially when you consider how natural it felt to solve it...
on 15. May 2025, 23:50 by jessica6
Super!
Je weiter ich dem Ende komme, steigt die Spannung. Habe ich alles richtig? Bei über 90% nochmal von vorn anzufangen wäre schrecklich gewesen.
Schließlich geht alles auf. Und der Lösungscode paßt. Hurra!
on 15. May 2025, 23:17 by Agent
Aktualisierte deutsche Regeln.
on 15. May 2025, 19:48 by jessica6
Ich glaube, "eine Erlaubnis, sich selbst zu kreuzen" sollte besser "eine Erlaubnis, eine Kreuzung zu besuchen" heißen.
Färbe ich nämlich den Weg von Startpunkt aus ein und fahre über eine Kreuzung, hat sich der Weg noch nicht selbst gekreuzt. Das tut er erst, wenn er zu dieser Kreuzung zurückkommt.
on 14. May 2025, 21:26 by MaizeGator
That was absolutely breathtaking. Very hard, but very satisfying. The ruleset twist of crosses instead of fields worked incredibly well. This puzzle also features Agent's signature ability to make you certain that you've broken the puzzle, only for the crazy option to be forced.
on 14. May 2025, 20:17 by Jesper
Very cool, thanks!
on 14. May 2025, 06:53 by Oripy
This puzzle was amazing from start to finish with many different type of deductions. Brilliant execution! Thank you Agent
on 14. May 2025, 06:30 by polar
Brilliant! Thanks Agent
on 13. May 2025, 23:20 by KNT
insanely good. probably my favorite solve so far this year
on 13. May 2025, 20:32 by TripleABattery
Brilliant puzzle(s) but possibly the hardest I've done in a very long time, which may in part be due to my unfamiliarity with the ruleset. Any time I thought I'd got the hang of it, I was very quickly humbled.
Both the main and example puzzle were very fun to solve, thank you :)
on 13. May 2025, 18:12 by sfushidahardy
Really natural variant of A38, and perfectly set! Loved every minute of the solve.
