Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Click here to Play in Sven’s SudokuPad

This puzzle is the first in my new “Lateral Thinking” series. Enjoy!

Rules:

Normal zoodoku rules apply: Place the digits 1 to 9 once each in every row, column and marked 3x3 box. Cells with carnivores contain high digits (7, 8, 9). Cells with herbivores contain low digits (1, 2, 3). Cells with omnivores contain middle digits (4, 5, 6). All animals and their diets are listed at the end of the rules.

Minimums: Cells with vegetation are marked with arrows pointing inwards. The digits that they contain are smaller than all of their orthogonally adjacent neighbours.

Enclosures: All animals are separated from one another (no two animals share the same space without a wall between them). The walls that keep them separated and enclosed form three perfectly square shapes. The walls do not enter any cells that contain animals, but they may traverse vegetation cells.

Medium square: all cells that are in contact with the medium sized square contain odd digits.

Small square: each of the four sides of the smaller square forms a separate renban line, that is, a sequence of non-repeating consecutive digits in no given order. Each vertex of the square belongs to two different renbans.

Large square: You don’t need to find this one, it is simply the exterior outline of the 9x9 grid. This is the outermost limit of the zoo, it cannot extend beyond it. Any other grid lines or 3x3 box outlines do not necessarily count as walls.

Symmetry: The final configuration of the zoo, with all the enclosures in place, must be symmetrical with respect to at least one horizontal or vertical axis.

Fog: the zoo is covered with fog, which will lift when ALL digits are entered correctly. The automatic congratulations message has been disabled.

Animals: These are the locations of the animals in our zoo. All animals must remain in their allocated cells at all times. Please do not disturb nor feed the animals.

Carnivores: crocodile (r2c5), leopard (r5c2) and tiger (r8c8).

Herbivores: bison (r2c2), panda (r2c8), zebra (r5c8) and llama (r8c5).

Omnivores: orangutan (r5c5) and hippopotamus (r8c2).

Enclosure examples:

The following illustrates a way of partitioning the grid using 5 squares, of which the red one is forced by the rules. You need to find something similar that uses only 3 squares (the red one plus two others).

The illustration below would be an invalid partition because the animals are not properly separated, and it’s not symmetrical. Enlarging the yellow square in box 1 to be the same size as the teal one in box 9 would fix both issues. Note that the rules don’t forbid the squares intersecting.

Thank you to The Book Wyrm, .proxz14, jojo81gaming and Jake for their test solves and amazing feedback ❤️

You can find my other puzzles here.