RAT RUN: 51 Years Later
(Eingestellt am 31. Dezember 2025, 21:00 Uhr von marty_sears)
- Fill the grid with the digits 0-3 so that each digit appears TWICE in every row, column, and marked 4x2 box.
- Reconstruct the maze by drawing thick walls along certain cell edges. The wall around the maze perimeter has been drawn already.
- CIRCLES: The digit in a circle indicates how many of that cell's 4 edges contain a wall.
- The finished maze must have a valid route from the red R (rat) to the blue C (cupcake), without passing through any walls or visiting any cells more than once. No diagonal moves are possible in this maze, due to the brown wall spots on the corners of cells.
- ONE-WAY DOORS: An edge containing a purple arrow does not contain a wall, and sits between two different digits, with the arrow pointing towards the smaller digit. An arrow can only be passed through in the direction it's pointing.
- TEST CONSTRAINT: Adjacent digits along the path must sum to at least 3.
Lösungscode: Digits on the path in column 2, reading downwards
Kommentare
am 29. Januar 2026, 18:38 Uhr von extremelypuzzled
Finally got it. Love the narration as well as the puzzles. Thanks!
am 26. Januar 2026, 23:28 Uhr von remmycat
I fully missed the rule that the one way doors cannot be walls and got increasingly frustrated while making progress at a snail's pace…
After 1h30 of struggling I was convinced I must be missing something obvious and when I finally saw it I restarted and had a much easier time, taking 40 mins. I wish I had waited with the restart until I was more excited about the puzzle again instead of finishing it out of spite, but oh well :) Love the series, excited to have caught up with the current releases over the last week!
am 26. Januar 2026, 22:21 Uhr von EMCaoloft
Beautiful puzzle! Can't believe it took me almost a month to realize that my favorite series is back!
am 20. Januar 2026, 00:36 Uhr von FifthWorld
The hard part of this is reminding yourself that the rule is only true for circled digits. I had to unwind a bit after I had slipped up just once. :)
am 16. Januar 2026, 22:50 Uhr von olc
quite simple after you start going, flows beautifully!
am 8. Januar 2026, 23:19 Uhr von valeryolympia
Love this teaser Marty, was hoping that you were still working on phase 3. Very excited!
am 8. Januar 2026, 04:46 Uhr von Liamhere
Waiting for the friendly finkz. Oh wait it says 14/01. Guess I need to wait one more week
am 8. Januar 2026, 00:15 Uhr von Nairurian
Love to see the return of the mazes! Although either my maze solving skills have rusted after a year or I’d put this higher than 3* :)
Edit: Yup, my brain was just rusty. After my brain booted up after what indeed felt like 51 years the solution clicked.
am 5. Januar 2026, 16:00 Uhr von xardass
I was really looking forward more Finkz adventures and I was super happy to see them here. I really enjoyed the lore aspect as well, and I am eagerly awaiting the rest of this phase. Thank you!
am 5. Januar 2026, 00:14 Uhr von Atticus837
We are so back! What a weird puzzle, and what a way to tease Phase 3. My body is ready.
am 4. Januar 2026, 11:46 Uhr von sujoyku
Thank you for this wonderful puzzle, Marty! Really curious how different and yet familiar this puzzle felt compared to the Rat Runs we know.
am 4. Januar 2026, 11:25 Uhr von davidz32z
Heck yes we back!! Will an ancient Finkz come back to mentor the younger generation of rats? I sure hope so! This puzzle is so good and like all the Rat Runs just a delightful path making journey. I don't know how Marty continues to come up with new rule sets that work perfectly and seem so well thought out and logical that it feels like surely there have been a hundred previous puzzles that use them. It's remarkable!
am 4. Januar 2026, 11:03 Uhr von BlendedCucumber
Incredible puzzle, the logic flowed so smoothly! I’m very excited to see our friendly neighborhood rat again :)
am 4. Januar 2026, 10:08 Uhr von eladv
Thank you Marty! This was a beautiful start for the year! A totally new logic for me, and a lot of discovering of new ways of thinking. I hope this is a great year for us all, full of fun new rulesets and crazy patterns! :)
am 4. Januar 2026, 08:46 Uhr von DonQuichopp
Loved the puzzle, for me it felt easier than I feared. Once I understood the assignment I got through quite rapidly. I am so hyped for Phase 3! Thank you for your efforts in this wonderful series.
am 3. Januar 2026, 13:25 Uhr von Franjo
I was so excited to find this beautiful overture when returning from my holidays! So I had to solve it immediately. And then I noticed that CtC-Simon published his solution already! Naughty Simon!
Anyway, I cannot give me any points, but I enjoyed building the maze. Thank you very much, Marty, for creating and sharing this wonderful puzzle.
am 3. Januar 2026, 09:12 Uhr von NordenShield
I am so incredibly happy about this puzzle and phase 3. I have bookmarked a page with unsolved puzzles by you Marty and I check it at least twice per week waiting for this moment. Thank you so much for the puzzles you create!
am 2. Januar 2026, 22:34 Uhr von MikeMeech
Great teaser and I can't wait for season 3!
am 2. Januar 2026, 22:00 Uhr von ako
<3 <3 <3
am 2. Januar 2026, 20:29 Uhr von nunc
Yeah, so cooooool. Thanks, Marty! Loved it, and I am very unpatiently waiting for Rat Run to continue.
am 2. Januar 2026, 19:25 Uhr von soupseason
rat run is back!! best start of the year ever
am 2. Januar 2026, 18:57 Uhr von LehanLehan
That's what I really wanted -- to reconstruct the maze myself. What a teaser and the 3rd season will be a must I'm sure. Thank you very much,Marty.
am 2. Januar 2026, 18:50 Uhr von ChristopherStanlake
Building the maze ourselves... genius! A great teaser to get my mind back into pathfinding sudokus and balancing a small handful of rules. The logic of my solve would have flown better had I not kept forgetting that only the digits on circles dictate where the wall is built! Can't wait for phase 3!
am 2. Januar 2026, 18:47 Uhr von Klausku
Wow. This puzzle is brilliant. And what a start to Phase 3. Can‘t wait for the next episode of this wonderful story, that I have long been waiting for. Thanks Marty!
am 2. Januar 2026, 10:44 Uhr von Ratfinkz
So now you have Ratfinkz building her own maze to be trapped in?! Something slightly sadistic about that! Haha!
Beautiful puzzle thoroughly enjoyed, so excited for season 3!
<3
am 2. Januar 2026, 09:49 Uhr von AshBrown
Great to have these back. Weird to get your head around but once you get it, it flows quite well
am 2. Januar 2026, 02:14 Uhr von vfig
what a lovely surprise! thank you
am 2. Januar 2026, 00:25 Uhr von virus_dave
I am so so happy to see this puzzle series return. Excellent fun to solve this, thank you once more Marty!
am 1. Januar 2026, 21:37 Uhr von Exigus
The puzzle is fantastic and so is the storyline. Thanks!
am 1. Januar 2026, 20:43 Uhr von juggler
Very nice twist on the Rat Run setup.
am 1. Januar 2026, 17:23 Uhr von CyreneDuVent
I finished Rat Run this morning, so seeing this was posted yesterday was quite serendipitous! It was the first one I'd done with the two in any block or line rule, so that took a bit to get used to, but it was a very nice puzzle once that sunk in! Very much so lookng forward to the start of phase 3. I think my retroactive new years resolution might need to be not getting too lost in sudokus :)
am 1. Januar 2026, 17:23 Uhr von mscha
Yay, new Rat Run!
Tricky start (or prologue?) for phase 3, mostly because I kept treating cells without a circle as if they did have one...
am 1. Januar 2026, 16:08 Uhr von KelleyCook
So excited for the continued adventures
am 1. Januar 2026, 15:48 Uhr von vitaminz
I don’t understand how you set this. The grid is in a certain way so sparsely clued (thinking of lack of circles as the real clue).
So many times I thought there was never going to be a way to determine if there was a wall
am 1. Januar 2026, 15:19 Uhr von firespire
Couldn't do the last Marty Sears 2 star puzzle but could do this 3 star one.
Already broken my new years resolution to stick to 1 star puzzles because there might be some brain power step that I can't get my head around.
I was able to use full grid marking, didn't have to juggle any information in my head. All the time I was dreading a look-ahead chain was coming but unless I got "lucky" the path seemed to be straightforward to identify. I just plodded along one step at at time. It was time consuming for me but I'm surprised better solvers didn't race through seeing the logic quicker than me.
After I read and understood the rules, I didn't find it tiring when the sums and counting is only up to three. You can't have computer assisted pencil-mark checking but I didn't have issues with the number discounting. Weaker solvers like myself can always take a break and use the answer check where required.
I assume the 3 star is more about time taken. Great Puzzle.
am 1. Januar 2026, 13:59 Uhr von stickx
<3
am 1. Januar 2026, 12:29 Uhr von davidemsa
A Rat Run where we build the maze? I love it! And the concept of a puzzle set in the modern day as teaser for phase 3 is cool.
am 1. Januar 2026, 09:51 Uhr von Christounet
Walls ? Where we're going, we don't need walls...
And we're back to the future maze!
Awesome teaser. Thanks :)
am 1. Januar 2026, 05:46 Uhr von Lyouke
For a new year’s break, Marty has left us to set the puzzle for him.
am 1. Januar 2026, 04:04 Uhr von little_turd
Now we have to BUILD the maze for you? I think we are becoming the rat as the series progresses :) jk Amazing puzzle as always!
am 1. Januar 2026, 00:56 Uhr von rkond
Amazing puzzle! Cannot wait for the rest of the series!
am 1. Januar 2026, 00:47 Uhr von Norkas
That was a very nice surprise and let me spent some of the time while the people outside wouldn't let me sleep. Very excited for the rest of phase 3. Enjoyed the ruleset a lot.
am 1. Januar 2026, 00:40 Uhr von zeniko
Thanks for this excellent puzzle and the entire series. And a happy new year!
am 31. Dezember 2025, 22:33 Uhr von wuc
Brilliant news! Refreshing puzzle. Awesome setting. Looking forwaaaard.
am 31. Dezember 2025, 21:32 Uhr von ChinStrap
The only sudoku with teasers. This was lovely and should be getting everyone excited for season 3 (as a tester I promise you'll love it).
