To Christmas 2024 some eager puzzlefriends have again arranged a group in which everybody had to make anonymously a puzzle for someone else. These puzzles are now presented one after the other here in the portal.
It was the day before Christmas Eve, and the gnomes were hard at work preparing deliveries. But something unusual had
happened, and Santa had called the head gnome into his private office a few moments ago. "I'm so glad you're here,"
Santa said. "I just got off the phone with one of my messengers who relayed a request for a puzzle gift. It needs to be something creative, fitting for someone who has already solved about everything."
"Wow," the head gnome replied. "That’s no easy task." "Is there anyone on your team who could help?" Santa asked.
"Maybe Klaus and Nickel?" The head gnome frowned. "The slitherlink twins? I suppose so, but their puzzles tend to be a bit...dull." Santa continued, "What about Teufel? I've heard he can put together quite the puzzle." "I'm sure he could," the head gnome replied, "but he tends to make troll puzzles to get on the solver's nerves." Santa scratched his head, "What if you have them work together?" "Well," the head gnome started, "Teufel doesn't really get along with the others. But I suppose we don't have a lot of options. I'll gather them immediately."
The head gnome left Santa's office and entered the workshop. "Klaus! Nickel! Teufel!" he hollered, "Meet me in my office
in 5 minutes!" Once they gathered, the head gnome said, "Santa and I have tasked you with making a puzzle that is to be delivered tomorrow, and it needs to be special. Any ideas for what you could make?" Quickly, Klaus blurted, "I know! I
could use slitherlink!" Nickel followed, "Ooh, and I'll use touching slitherlink! That'll surely throw them a curve ball." Teufel rolled his eyes. "Oh wow, do you mean you'll use the same constraints you always use? How original." The twins began to protest, but Teufel waved them off and continued. "Fine, I suppose I could use Japanese sums. Maybe I can even add an evil twist and make edges separate the sums, instead of just shaded cells."
"Why do you always have to be so mean?" Nickel replied. But before they could start arguing, the head gnome
interrupted. "Right, so it sounds like you have a plan. I expect this to be done by morning so we can test it before
delivery. The head gnome then returned to the workshop, hopeful that they could finish the gift in time. But the next morning, he found them amid a rather loud argument. "What's going on here!?" the head gnome bellowed. "Have you
finished the gift?"
"Well, we had it finished," Klaus said, and then pointed at Teufel. "But this nincompoop wouldn't stop complaining about
our clues." "Yeah!" continued Nickel, "So he erased them all when we weren't looking!" The head gnome glared at
Teufel, who replied, "That may be, but not before these two messed up my clues. Look, they replaced everything letters
and question marks. And what do these asterisks mean!?" Nickel retorted, "It means you’re a big, f-..."
"Silence!" the head gnome shouted. He started to reprimand the group, but first he glanced at the grid to see if the gift could be salvaged. And then suddenly, he saw something that none of the gnomes did. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "this just might work..."
Rules:
Draw two loops along the edges of some cells. The loops cannot cross themselves, but may cross each other, in which
case both loops must go straight at the intersection. The loops may not otherwise overlap or touch each other.
Place digits in cells that are inside one or more loops such that they match the appropriate slitherlink clue(s). Cells inside one loop are standard slitherlink clues, showing the number of adjacent edges used by either loop. Cells inside the other loop are touching slitherlink clues, showing the number of times either loop visits that cell, including at corners. Cells inside both loops must contain a digit equal to the sum of both clue types. Cells outside both loops are empty and have no value.
Clues outside the grid indicate the sums of contiguous segments of non-empty cells in that row or column, in the correct order. Loop edges delimit such segments; there may be one or more empty cells between segments, but there need not be. Clue colors are aesthetic only.
Each letter represents a different digit from 0 to 9. A "?" stands for any digit, though a double-digit number may not start with zero. A "*" represents any number of clues, including none
Example: