Feeding Friendsy: Hold Your Horses
(Published on 21. October 2026, 00:30 by vitaminz)
#FRIENDSHIPGOALS:
Help PuzzleJumper the Horse (r10c9) help Marty the Zebra (r10c2) make better nutritional choices. Marty needs more vitaminz in his life — get him to a salad bar! Marty must find a path to the broccoli while resisting the temptation of cupcakes along the way.
Use PuzzleJumper to draw a path between the centers of cells around the grid. The path may go in any direction — including diagonally — but because PuzzleJumper likes to go fast more than he likes turning, the path direction may not change by more than 45° between steps. For example, if a step of the path travels Northwest, the next step of the path may only go West, Northwest or North.
PuzzleJumper cannot travel normally in cells that are NOT in a box but he may “jump” over one cell at a time. To do so safely, the direction of the path must be the same for the step before the jump, the jump and the step after the jump and cannot stop immediately after a jump (a straight line across 5 cells will be involved in each jump).
PuzzleJumper will not enter cells with teleports, on principle. His path will end if and only if it reaches a cupcake (he deserves a treat after such hard work!). ᴱᵈᴵᵗᵒʳ'ˢ ᴺᵒᵗᵉ: ᵖʳᵉᵗᵗʸ ˢᵘʳᵉ ʰᵉ'ˢ ʲᵘˢᵗ ᵃᵈᵈᶦᶜᵗᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ˢᵘᵍᵃʳ
His path must allow Marty to reach the broccoli yet prevent him from getting to any cupcakes. His path also will never be adjacent to itself, even diagonally.
Marty will freely roam around the grid to every cell he can reach (his path is not as constrained) but will only travel orthogonally and may not enter a cell on PuzzleJumper’s path, nor one that is outside of a box. Marty may use teleports or walk through them without being transported.
TELEPORTS: Entering a teleport can cause Marty — if he chooses — to be instantly transported to the matching coloured teleport. From there he can continue his journey. Matching teleports always have identical digits; teleports that don't match always have different digits. Teleports will always appear within boxes.
BLACKCURRANTS: Cells connected by a blackcurrant arguably have a 1:2 ratio (one is double the other). Not all possible blackcurrants have been given. Take note — cells connected by a blackcurrant might both be outside of a box!
CUPCAKES: Cupcakes MUST be in a 3x3 box but are bad for Marty's health — do not let him touch them!
TRIALS and TRAILS: In this test of friendship, PuzzleJumper’s path is divided by box borders into segments with equal sums (ignoring the cells over which he jumps). Good luck!
Solution code: The digits on PuzzleJumper’s path in row 9
Comments
on 25. October 2026, 01:55 by monsen
Loved the puzzle, but boy did I find the break in hard. Most of the difficulty was figuring which way PuzzleJumper had to move though. Once I had confirmed that, the difficulty of the rest of the puzzle immediately fell to something like 2.5* as things just fell in place.
on 25. October 2026, 01:26 by darkgently
Enjoyed everything about this puzzle, from the rules to the solve to the solution code ;). I think it's only 4* difficulty though, once you wrap your head around the rules.
on 24. October 2026, 10:11 by mariuszdl
First puzzle i failed while trying to understand the rules... I hope Simon will crack it so we can see the solution on CtC.
on 24. October 2026, 00:31 by LunchEntity
Great puzzle, but the rule clarification was very necessary for me! (I wasted a lot of brain at the start trying to find a way to force a unique path for Marty to follow.) A very nice progression from chaos to order in this one.
on 23. October 2026, 20:50 by Thanos13
Simply mind-blowingly difficult and clever.
on 23. October 2026, 18:31 by blackjackfitz
Huzzah!
on 23. October 2026, 07:21 by Norkas
Doable, once I got a better grasp of the rules, but certainly daunting to start. Fun solve all around.
on 23. October 2026, 05:11 by dr.Bunsen
Very innovative! I like puzzles in which different rules become more important at successive stages of the solving process.
I found this puzzle very difficult, perhaps because I misunderstood the rules. The comment below clarified a lot: "He (Marty) will explore every square he has access to. Think of it as more a pen than a path."
on 23. October 2026, 01:33 by kthomp
Great puzzle! Definitely 5 stars for me, but super fun to solve.
on 22. October 2026, 19:30 by heliopolix
'Twas a bloody brilliant showing at East Wildebeast-upon-Crumpetbury Downs! PuzzleJumpa' once again demonstrated his steeplechase pedigree, while the newcomer Marty thrilled the crowd with his cupcake-seeking antics. A jolly good time all-round.
on 22. October 2026, 16:03 by ThomasR
Rule clarification: "Marty will freely roam around the grid to every cell he can reach" - does it mean whenever he can reach a cell, he MUST step into it?
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Correct. He will explore every square he has access to. Think of it as more a pen than a path.
on 21. October 2026, 23:07 by 6rank
Very tricky and great fun. At least I got it solved in under 4 hours, so it could not be 5 stars for difficulty. Though it felt like at least 4.5 stars for difficulty, so it should be 5 stars for difficulty :)
on 21. October 2026, 23:04 by QuiltyAsCharged
Great galloping Gertrude, what a mind bender!
on 21. October 2026, 19:12 by stranger
I don't know why I'm considering whether this'd be an enclose.horse reference
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I don’t know what that is so it certainly isn’t an intentional one :)
on 21. October 2026, 03:46 by ViKingPrime
It's about time Marty ate a vegetable.
on 21. October 2026, 03:20 by marty_sears
Absolutely bonkers, but in the best possible way. Loved the creativity of having two different types of path interacting with each other. Brilliant idea and executed so cleverly. Definitely deserving of its penultimate position in the series, being madder than all the others, except for one. See you next week folks! ;)
