Parasitic Destruction
(Published on 3. August 2025, 21:42 by NXTMaster)
This puzzle is a collaboration with Zack Szekely published back in March 2022. It is the perfect showcase of the synergy between my Chaos Destruction ruleset (inspired by Phistomefel's Chaos Construction: Minesweeper) and Zack's Parasites ruleset. Does the puzzle still hold up over three years later?
The rules are as follows:
The puzzle is available on F-Puzzles and The CTC App. Have fun solving!
The rules are as follows:
- Place the digits 1-9 once in every row and column.
- Chaos Destruction: All given regions must be "destroyed" by making sure they do not contain all the digits 1-9. The grid also consists of nine hidden, orthogonally connected regions that each do contain all the digits 1-9. Digits in circles represent how many of its orthogonally and diagonally adjacent cells, including itself, belong to both the given and hidden regions where the circle resides (i.e., where they overlap). All circles are chaos destruction clues.
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Parasites: Draw parasites moving orthogonally through the grid that connect all circles that share the same digit. Parasites may not move diagonally, branch, or cross themselves nor each other, but they may touch themselves and each other otherwise. The start and end of each parasite must occur on distinct circles, and all circles belong to parasites. The two types of parasites are "larva" and "adult."
- Larvae must contain a total number of bends equal to the digit in its circles, and at least one of those bends must occur on a cell where its circle-digit appears outside of a circle. There are exactly two larvae in this puzzle.
- Adults must contain a total number of bends between each circle (not counting bends on circles) equal to the digit in its circles. Additionally, all the digits an adult crosses are grouped by the hidden regions they belong to, and the sum of all the digits in each group must be divisible by that adult's circle-digit.
The puzzle is available on F-Puzzles and The CTC App. Have fun solving!
Solution code: Row 2, Row 6 (Only cells occupied by parasites)
Last changed on on 6. August 2025, 08:15
Solved by The Book Wyrm, HertogHJ, han233ing, SirJefferE, wensty
Comments
on 6. August 2025, 08:15 by NXTMaster
Rule wording: "multiple of" -> "divisible by"
Last changed on 6. August 2025, 08:13
on 5. August 2025, 04:48 by HertogHJ
Great puzzle! Hard but fair. I was a bit confused by the rule for the adults. I think it would be more clear if it said: ", and the sum of all the digits in each group must be 'divisible by' the adult's circle-digit."
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Thank you for the feedback. We're constantly revising the rules. A shame they are so weird, but we hope the solve is worth the wordiness.
