Hedge Fun
(Published on 22. September 2025, 03:42 by vfig)
Solve in PuzzleTV (drag and drop pieces into place)
Solve in SudokuPad (use draw tool to place pieces)
Hedge Fun
Oliver 👴🏼 is lost in the hedge maze, and must find a way out. Normal sudoku rules apply.
Draw a path between cell centers from Oliver's starting point in The Origin to one of the exits at the cardinal points of the grid. The path cannot branch, nor cross itself, nor enter any cell more than once. The path may go orthogonally or diagonally, but must never touch any hedges (green walls). Adjacent digits along the path must differ by at least 5.
The hedge maze must be mapped out by placing all nine pieces into the grid, one into each box, without overlapping. The pieces may not be rotated or flipped. One piece has been placed already and may not be moved. Hedges do not need to match up between adjacent pieces.
All the fountains (blue circles) must be reassembled by joining two halves. The path may not go diagonally through a fountain.
Sumflowers 🌻 only grow between a pair of digits that sum to 10. Oliver visits exactly one of the cells beside each sumflower, but must never visit both its cells.
Apple trees 🌳 only grow between a pear of digits that sum to 5. Oliver is very hungry, and must collect all the apples 🍎 from the maze by visiting each cell with an apple. A tree without fruit does not have to be visited.
Solve in PuzzleTV (drag and drop pieces into place)
Solve in SudokuPad (use draw tool to place pieces)
Thanks to Malakree, Roger Wrightshoe, Kara Jo Kalinowski, Shmiddty, and JoshSoup for testing the puzzle. Special thanks to Chameleon for PuzzleTV support.
Solution code: Digits on the path in row 4
Comments
on 6. October 2025, 18:45 by eladv
Thank you, this was absolutely wonderful! It's amazing to me that this still felt like a 3* puzzle even with all its complexity. Just a beautiful stroll in the garden.
(I guess for people who are not well-versed in the Rat Runs, this is more like a 4*, though.)
on 4. October 2025, 03:45 by QuiltyAsCharged
Wonderful and so creative! I couldn't solve the PuzzleTV version on my tablet, but SudokuPad's draw tool worked nicely.
on 2. October 2025, 16:29 by GandalfLeRouge
Solved it in the end! Really great puzzle!
on 2. October 2025, 07:45 by GandalfLeRouge
Hi there! Puzzle looks really great, but there's one piece or rule I'm not quite sure I understand.
It's the "The path may go orthogonally or diagonally, but must never touch any hedges (green walls)".
What does "must never touch any hedges (green walls)" mean?
At first, I would think it means that the path may not cross any green line, or go diagonally through any green dot.
[vfig:] your thoughts here are correct.
Can the path go along a green hedge, orthogonally or diagonally?
For example, can the path go from r7c2 to r9c2 in a straight line?
[vfig:] the path should be a line drawn between cell centers. so yes, a line from the center of r7c2, through the center of r8c2, to the center of r9c2 is allowed because such a line does not touch any hedge walls or hedge end dots.
Thanks in advance for the precisions!
[gandalf:] thanks for your answers!
on 1. October 2025, 11:59 by marajade
Wow!!! What a fantastic puzzle. I had a great time solving it, thank you so much!
on 30. September 2025, 06:34 by hamosphere
A really fun puzzle, thanks
on 26. September 2025, 16:03 by ViKingPrime
Simply spectacular.
on 26. September 2025, 12:20 by marty_sears
This was a fantastic take on maze sudokus... loved the break-in and it remained challenging but doable and enjoyable after that. Very satisfying as it all started to fall into place. Great work
on 24. September 2025, 22:18 by PuzzlePatzer
Very nice! That was my first Sudoku where I had to assemble the grid myself - loads of fun. :) thanks for sharing
on 23. September 2025, 12:13 by clock
Very interesting and challenging puzzle, thanks for your work!
