Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

It's been nearly two years since I started regularly setting. In that time, I have learned so much about setting and made so many amazing friends, and now, I am releasing my 50th puzzle into the portal. As promised, it is a beast.

With trepidation, I joined Secret Satan 2024. I was gifted the amazing Double negative by filuta. As for my puzzle? I drew Chad, and I knew just what to do when he said he loved modifiers and connected grids. Taking inspiration from the fittingly-named Olympic Inspiration, I had the following vision:
What if I made a set of grids which looped back on themselves?
However, I didn't think that was quite devilish enough for the Secret Satan event. To take it up a notch, I continued,
What if the solver had to find the placements of each of these grids?

More and more devilish thoughts followed close behind. What if the modifier changed in every grid? What if you had to figure out which modifier went in which grid? What if multiple modifiers applied in shared boxes? What if... what if... what if...

From here, I spiraled into madness, and the result follows. Tread carefully, and happy snacking!

The big puzzle can be found in Penpa by clicking on the image, or this link!

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you get a "url too long" error (which is very possible), go to Penpa, copy the URL, and hit "load" in the top right corner.

You can find the big grid in SudokuPad here.

R U L E S :

This is an eight-grid puzzle, with grids numbered 1 through 8, indicated in r1c1 of each respective sub-grid. The eight sub-grids must be located in the larger grid, and assigned their location by the solver.

Draw a modifier loop which travels orthogonally, and may not touch itself, not even diagonally. Digits along the loop are modified in one of ten ways, depending on their location in the grid:

• A: Averager - a digit will take the value of the average of its cell and the up to four orthogonally adjacent cells within its sub-grid, written as a decimal. (Note that this may be a repeating decimal.)
• C: Copycat - a digit will take the value of the digit with 180-degree rotational symmetry in its own grid.
• D: Doubler - a digit X is modified to have the value 2X.
• H: Halver - a digit X is modified to have the value X/2, written as a decimal. (1 halved is written as 0.5.)
• I: Incrementor - a digit X is modified to have the value X+1.
• N: Negator - a digit X is modified to have the value -X.
• R: Reflector - a digit X is modified to have the value 10-X.
• S: Squarer - a digit X is modified to have the value X^2.
• T: Tenifier - a digit X is modified to have the value 10.
• Z: Nullifier - a digit X is modified to have the value 0.

Each grid is assigned one of these ten modifiers. Cells on the loop are modified according to that grid’s assigned modifier. For boxes which are in two grids, cells on the loop have both modifiers applied in sequence, starting with the lower-numbered grid’s modifier. All cells off the loop have a value equal to their digit.

In the sub-grids, the following rules apply. (Click on each heading for the Sudokupad link!)

• I: Ciphered killer (with interaction): Digits may not repeat within a cage and values in the cage must sum to the number in the top left corner of the cage, once it has been deciphered. The ten letters each represent a unique number from 0 to 9. Each letter represents a modifier. The modifiers representing 9 and 0 will not appear in any grid, and the letters S, A, T, A and N indicate the modifier used in the grid they represent.
• II: XV: Values separated by an X sum to 10. Values separated by a V sum to 5.
• III: Thermometer: Values strictly increase along a thermometer, starting from the bulb.
• IV: Renban: Values along a renban must form an arithmetic progression of length 1. For instance, {1.5, 2.5, 3.5} could be a valid renban, but {2, 4, 6} is not.
• V: Split peas: Values strictly between two circles must sum to the concatenation of the values in the circles, in some order. Leading zeroes are allowed. Two negatives or two decimals are not allowed.
• VI: Double arrows: Values strictly between two circles must sum to the sum of the values in the circles.
• VII: Arrows: Values along an arrow must sum to the value in the arrow's bulb.
• VIII: German whispers: Adjacent values along a line must have a difference of at least 5.

To play this puzzle in Penpa (suggested), click the image below of the eight sub-grids!

Secret Satan was such an amazing adventure, and I hope that this puzzle is a testament to how insane I can go if I am left to my own devices. "Happy" solving! Please let me know if you get stuck or need a hint - I will respond as quickly as possible!

Finally, please leave a comment if you enjoy this one! This beast took me six months to get to the form you see it today, so a kind comment would be much appreciated :) Then, check out some of my easier puzzles! If you do solve it, congratulations!