Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

This is one of my favorite puzzles I've made recently. I feel it has a very satisfying flow from start to finish and it shows off a surprisingly powerful way of thinking about white dots that I picked up from watching a fellow setter solve a puzzle recently.

Wasn't totally sure on a difficulty rating for this one. My instinct would've said upper 1 star or maybe low 2 star, but a tester said it'd be safest to put as standard 2, so that's what I'm going with. If you're really comfortable working with white dots it might be in 1 star territory.

Rules:

• Normal sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-9 in each row, column, and 3x3 box without repetition.
• Consecutive Pairs: Digits separated by a white dot must be consecutive.
• Killer Cages: Digits in dotted-line cages must sum to the number in the top left corner of the cage. Digits may not repeat within a cage.

Solve on SudokuPad here!

To increase accessibility to my puzzles, I include hints in my LMD posts and also post solution videos on my YouTube channel. I hope these help you solve the puzzles if you are struggling :)

Hint 1: Rows 1 and 9 have 4 white dots each. What does that mean about how the even and odd digits must be placed?
Hint 2: Once you know what digits are in R6's cage, think about R4's cage. You can deduce its digits thanks to the 2 white dots it sees.
Hint 3: After a lot of classic sudoku, you can work out the cages in R3 and R7. After that, think more carefully about R9. If you consider what R9C5 is, you can say what pairs of digits must be placed onto the rest of R9's dots.