Killer at large in the fog: #3
(Published on 8. March 2025, 17:45 by Fenners)
Here is the third edition of my Detective series. It's potentially a little harder than 1 and 2. Can you crack it?
Puzzle: Killer at large in the fog: #3
Rules:
Hello again detective, it's been a while. We've been withholding this letter from the Zodiac for a while now, but even our best cryptographers don't know how to get started on it! Here are the rules we have, now it's over to you.
Normal 9x9 Sudoku rules apply.
Dynamic Fog: The letter has been partially smudged this time and digits may or may not reveal more clues.
Arrows: Digits on the tail of an arrow sum to the digit in the bulb. All bulbs are visible from the start.
If a line heads towards a cell, it enters that cell. They are snipped so they can't been seen through smudge.
German Whispers: Adjacent digits on a green line must differ by at least 5.
Parity Line: Adjacent digits on a red line must have an even and odd digit.
Entropic Line: For every 3 adjacent digits on a peach line, one must be from the set {1, 2, 3}, one from {4, 5, 6} and one from {7, 8, 9}
Modular Line: For every 3 adjacent digits on a teal line, one must be from the set {1, 4, 7}, one from {2, 5, 8} and one from {3, 6, 9}.
Region Sum Line: Digits on a blue line must sum to the same value for each box it enters.
Finally, the killers name will be revealed by the digits in cells with outlined boxes (read left to right or top to bottom). Our heads were scrambled by this one! I MARVEL at how characters could possibly be equated to digits???
Good luck!
Solution code: Column 5, top to bottom, 9 digits no spaces:
Comments
on 28. March 2025, 07:42 by QuiltyAsCharged
Terrific conclusion! I really enjoyed cracking this case
on 26. March 2025, 00:47 by ostio456
After many hours of blood sweat and tears it seems we finally have the culprit in custardy. The suspect was arrested whilst consuming what looked like a chimichanga.
Good luck with the next case. Yes, I'm looking at you reading this... (oh no, looks like i just broke the fourth wall... maybe i have more in common with the suspect than i thought)
on 25. March 2025, 20:01 by ostio456
After many hours of blood sweat and tears it seems we finally have the culprit in custardy. The suspect was arrested whilst consuming what looked like a chimichanga.
Good luck with the next case. Yes, I'm looking at you reading this... (oh no, looks like i just broke the fourth wall... maybe i have more in common with the suspect than i thought)
on 9. March 2025, 21:23 by MattJones
Really enjoyable, the snipped lines were a neat way of keeping in some intrigue throughout. Probably 1.5* for me. Really fun series, thanks!
on 9. March 2025, 17:14 by rdesmarais2
I was lost for a while didn't realize some of those were more constrained due to each other. Very nice.
on 9. March 2025, 13:54 by VitP
great puzzle, but there is a technical problem: the "blue" and "teal" lines are virtually indistinguishable. all you can say for certain is that they are both "blue-ish".
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This was brought up during testing, as I had it as magenta, and so looked like a renban line, thus I changed it back. Now, I don't know what colour to use.. -- Fenners
on 9. March 2025, 12:55 by TheNineElements
Solve Time: 42:26
I rated this 2/5 difficulty.
Great puzzle & a fun solve! This puzzle took me probably 20 minutes longer than it should have, but overall the true difficult/logic was probably in the 2* difficulty range. Typically, 2* puzzles take me significantly less than 30 minutes, but due to my poor scanning and misguided attention, this puzzle is an outlier for me.
The first major piece of logic in the break in was actually really nice and a cool idea. In fact, it was probably my favorite aspect of the solve. For whatever reason, I was totally unable to spot the "trick" (don't want to spoil it here) for nearly 20 minutes and had only a few pencilmarks up until I discovered it. I definitely should have noticed the trick early on (I had even colored/highlighted the relevant cells at the beginning of my solve - somehow overlooking the idea), but I ended up focusing too much on the other clues to no avail. Even though it took me so long to spot, the actual logic was definitely approachable and completely fair for a 2* puzzle.
The remaining portion of the solve was similarly approachable (and enjoyable), and felt around a hard 1* to a lower 2* difficulty, leaning towards 2*.
Overall nice puzzle, and thanks for sharing!
P.s., trying to unmask the killer left me red in the face, and with the sudden urge to go out for some chimichangas.
on 8. March 2025, 22:12 by MattJones
Really enjoyable, the snipped lines were a neat way of keeping in some intrigue throughout. Probably 1.5* for me. Really fun series, thanks!
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Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I’ve updated the pre-rating to 2 stars, I felt it was somewhere in between 2-3, so 2 may be more reasonable :) — Fenners
