Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

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PUZZLE:

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RULES:

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Chiki the Monkey previously obtained immortality and vast wealth by accepting the forbidden bargain — forever being hunted by an immortal assassin snail that will draw ever closer — yet vast wealth was not enough... Chiki has discovered he has an insatiable thirst for money. Help keep Chiki alive while he collects his earnings and deposits them in his vault.

Fill the 9×9 grid so that every row, column and marked 3×3 box contains the digits 1-9 without repeats. A diamond separates two digits where one is double the other. Not all diamonds have been given.

Draw a path for Chiki through the centre of grid cells, towards the bank vault in the upper-right corner of the grid. Chiki may move orthogonally or diagonally — if there is room to do so — but may not revisit or cross his own path, nor can he pass through any bright green maze walls. Chiki's path may also venture outside of the grid, if permitted by these rules.

Numbers outside of the grid are "numbered room" clues, indicating the digit which has to be placed in the Nth cell in the corresponding direction, where N is the digit placed in the first cell in that direction.

The snail that hunts him has spoiled one of the digits inside and outside the grid. This forbidden digit — the "poison digit" — must be avoided at all costs.

Chiki's path functions as a "whisper" line, wherein adjacent cells along the path have a difference of at least five (5). Chiki must collect ALL Golden Coins, which represent an almost complete set of the digits 1-9 (excepting, of course, the poison digit). These must also be collected in "whisper" fashion, so that each subsequent coin is at least 5 different from the previous.

Chiki may overcome this restriction, however, by purchasing an "antidote" cell. Sid Snailington has set-up shop in R3C1 (indicated by the cash money sign); if Chiki's path crosses this cell, he may spend some of his wealth so that one cell along the remainder of his journey could ignore the whisper constraint (e.g. it could possess any digit, and the adjacent cells along Chiki's path would instead ignore the "antidote" cell and would consider each other adjacent for the purposes of the whisper logic; this would apply equally to the whisper constraint for the coins) and indeed could even possess a poisoned digit!

...and yet... does Chiki dare trust a snail...? 🐌

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INTRODUCTION:

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This was all part of Scojo's most recent imposter prompt, wherein each setter was challenged to set a puzzle only they could make... and I lost.

I just... I don't know what more I could have done here?

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