Deep Rock Galactic
(Published on 19. April 2026, 02:09 by EdTheAlchemist)
I'm a big fan of the game Deep Rock Galactic and I couldn't help but make a tribute to it! It's a simple concept and you don't need to know the game to play this sudoku - you just need to get your pickaxe and start mining the digits... I mean the gemstones and minerals!
You are a dwarf working for the Deep Rock Galactic corporation, mining out precious resources from barren asteroids... but beware of the dangerous alien bugs!
- Normal Sudoku rules apply.
- Filling in correct digits clears fog in that cell and may clear other cells; no guessing is required.
- Cells in the grid are either rock (shaded) or tunnel (unshaded).
- The tunnel must be a single orthogonally-connected region.
- No 2x2 area of the grid may be entirely tunnel (though it may be entirely rock), and every cell which is rock must be orthogonally connected through rock cells to one of the edges of the grid, lest the mine collapse!
- Prospector clues outside the grid give the sums of tunnel cell segments in the respective row or column, in order, where rock cells separate segments. A question mark (?) indicates any digit from 0 to 9, but no clue may have a leading zero. Each letter is a specific digit, all of which will be revealed somewhere in the grid. An asterisk (*) denotes an arbitrary number of prospector clues - this could be zero, one, or more - of any size. A plus (+) denotes one or more prospector clues of any size. If a row or column has one or more prospector clues, then those clues must cover every tunnel segment in that row or column.
- Pickaxe cells must be in the tunnel and indicate how many tunnel cells they see in all four cardinal directions combined, including themselves; rock cells block line of sight. ALL possible pickaxes are given.
- Gem cells must be in the tunnel (you've dug them out!) and are equal to the sum of the tunnel cells in the (up to four) orthogonally-adjacent cells. ALL possible gemstones are given.
- Alien Bug cells may or may not be in the tunnel, but, to defeat the bugs, all tunnel cells orthogonally adjacent to a bug (though there need not be any) must be larger than the bug's cell.
Solution code: Bottom row
Comments
on 19. April 2026, 18:41 by Sherif
That logic was tricky
on 19. April 2026, 18:41 by Sherif
That logic was tricky
on 19. April 2026, 16:19 by EdTheAlchemist
Edited wording to make it clear that all letters must be revealed at some point in the grid
on 19. April 2026, 12:16 by EdTheAlchemist
Updated to add one reveal clue.
on 19. April 2026, 04:29 by MonsieurTRISTE
Does the rule mean that there is only one tunnel, and possibly multiple rocks?
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Alchemist says: Yes it does - The tunnel is a single region, but the rocks are not so restricted as long as each rock region reaches the edge of the grid (bullet points 4 and 5)!
Please re-start the puzzle using the new link though, as testers revealed a mistake I'd made and one more clue is needed to solve the puzzle!
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I tried the new link, got stuck again at the very same place, and couldn't see the new clue, which must be somewhere in the fog, I guess.
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If you're on the CTC Discord, I'm there as Alchemist and you can send me a screenshot of how far you've got; I'm now certain the puzzle is solvable though! (edit: yes, the new clue is a fog reveal)
