Check Yourself
(Published on 10. January 2026, 07:18 by PhoenixAki)
The original concept for this puzzle was a vague idea of wanting to force a specific bit of knowledge about German whisper lines, and it wound up becoming my first path puzzle, and my first puzzle that I + other testers estimate to be 3/5 star difficulty. This took a few nights of banging my head against the wall to get it to work right, but I'm quite happy with the result. Big thanks to both TVDK and sujoyku for helping with testing and some development of the idea.
Rules:
To increase accessibility to my puzzles, I post solution videos on on my YouTube channel. If you'd like to solve this in your own video, go ahead! But ideally, let me know here or via Discord (same username) if you do ^.^
- Normal sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-9 in each row, column, and 3x3 box without repetition.
- Dynamic Fog: The grid is partially covered in grey fog. Placing correct digits will clear the fog, at minimum under that cell and sometimes in other parts of the grid. No guessing is required.
- Whisper Path: Draw a path through the grid which starts and ends with the cells with stars (R1C1 and R9C8). The path acts as a German whisper line, in which adjacent digits must have a difference of at least 5. Cells with green circles are given as part of the path. The path may only move orthogonally and can not touch itself, even diagonally.
- Killer Cages: Digits in dotted-line cages must sum to the number in the top left corner of the cage. Digits may not repeat within a cage.
- Kropki Pairs: Digits separated by a black dot must have one digit be double the other (a 2:1 ratio). Digits separated by a white dot must be consecutive.
To increase accessibility to my puzzles, I post solution videos on on my YouTube channel. If you'd like to solve this in your own video, go ahead! But ideally, let me know here or via Discord (same username) if you do ^.^
Solution code: Row 3 from left to right (9 digits)
Solved by TVDK, mayiyang, AllesUgo, Fizz, RoystonDA, Joven, JoeyJoeJoe, MissAmy254, sujoyku, Oddlyeven, RobJH, Snookerfan, Piff, lutzreimer, mellowrobinson, Prince Joffrey, sedici, gdc, SKORP17, Hizuriya, ... karlmortenlunna, SFP, totem_mapr, zeniko, StaticTimeHead, Vaccinia, Myreque, MaxSmartable, PuzzBmcg, RixCerv, PippoForte, croo377, Spillo, ad1643, prajmen, XandoToaster, vidarino, Yoica, Kavvy
Comments
on 11. January 2026, 01:47 by Exigus
Very nice path-building. Nice and smooth. Thanks!
on 10. January 2026, 18:14 by Franjo
Thank you very much for creating and sharing this beautiful foggy path-puzzle.
on 10. January 2026, 15:47 by Snookerfan
Fun puzzle, thanks!
on 10. January 2026, 13:35 by Oddlyeven
Very enjoyable, thanks!
on 10. January 2026, 12:43 by sujoyku
Thank you for this lovely puzzle, PhoenixAki! Full of nice path logic and interesting interactions, just a blast to solve.
on 10. January 2026, 12:10 by MissAmy254
Really enjoyed this one!
on 10. January 2026, 12:00 by JoeyJoeJoe
01:35:56 for me - thanks for setting
on 10. January 2026, 10:52 by Fizz
That was a very fun puzzle, thanks!
