The Ouroboros
(Eingestellt am 21. Dezember 2020, 01:58 Uhr von hamslice)
Standard Sudoku rules apply except the regions are irregular in shape and are to be deduced. Given black region demarcations must be respected.
Draw a 1-cell wide simple closed loop that doesn’t touch itself orthogonally or diagonally. From a digit in any cell on the loop, travelling halfway around the loop will land you on the same digit. i.e.: Opposite points of the loop have the same digits.
In the grid are some statues, and all possible statues are marked. A cell with a statue cannot be a part of the loop. A statue cell shows how many of the surrounding cells, including itself, are not part of the loop. The value of all square statues are equal, and the value of each circular statue is different to every other statue – square or circle.
Lösungscode: Column 5, then Row 5, then the number of region boundary lines the loop passes through in one complete cycle, in a 20-digit string.
Kommentare
am 27. Oktober 2021, 14:19 Uhr von DrWraith
This took quite a long time! I enjoyed it a lot. I will try to find the time to make a youtube solution video :)
am 14. Oktober 2021, 18:39 Uhr von Mark Sweep
What an incredible puzzle! It is a shame that so few people solved this beauty so far. The solve path is very narrow, so I had to be very tight with my logic. That being said, I never felt terribly stuck. Usually I felt I was at least close to the next (minor) breakthrough, I just had to carefully pick the right cells to prove certain relations or reduce important candidates.
It took me 3-4 hours, which is definitely long, but there are other puzzles on this portal that have taken me that long, so it is hard, but not an extraordinary, tedious kind of hard.
Hopefully this will encourage more people to give it a go!
am 7. März 2021, 06:37 Uhr von Phistomefel
I can confirm that finding the loop is an interesting challenge with some beautiful and unconventional logic to uncover. In the second stage, however, I hit a brick wall and decided to throw in the towel.
am 6. März 2021, 02:16 Uhr von emmettcito
@Zach Szekely yeah, it would not be an understatement to call the setter of this puzzle the greatest genius on this site. I solved two of their harder puzzles awhile ago and they were the most brutal and beautiful I had ever attempted (both took me 4-5 hours) I tried this puzzle awhile ago and only made it past the first stage (maybe I will try again). Glad to see someone else putting in the effort to be able to recognize the talent this setter has.
am 19. Februar 2021, 00:18 Uhr von Zack Szekely
I now fully understand why this sudoku has had zero solves for two full months. That was MONSTEROUSLY difficult. I must admit though, I'm pretty impressed with how the solution unfolded. Each of the three stages felt like an entire puzzle on its own. Drawing the loop was the first stage, filling in digits was the second, and drawing the boundaries was the third, and every step of the process was at least just as difficult as the last. It took me multiple days to finally finish it.
The amount of time needed to solve it isn't a bad thing though. The more patience you have for solving it, the more beautiful logic you're able to find within it. There were still moments here and there that felt like tedious process-of-elimination work via borderline bifurcation, but overall, I still definitely enjoyed the logic in this puzzle, and I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.
I hope this comment helps to give this sudoku just a smidgen of the recognition that it deserves. :)
