Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

This puzzle was set for Scojo’s weekly puzzle prompt last week! I am especially proud of this one and hope you enjoy solving.

Rules:

Standard sudoku rules apply. Fill every row, column and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each.

Kropki: Cells separated by a white dot are consecutive.

Fortress: Red cells with outward pointing arrows are larger than all of their orthogonal neighbors. Blue cells with inward pointing arrows are smaller than all of their orthogonal neighbors.

Index Line Loop: Draw a loop into the grid that may only move orthogonally and may not touch itself, not even diagonally. Additionally, fortress cells are never part of the loop; however, all fortress cells touch the loop either orthogonally or diagonally (or both). Kropki dots have no effect on the loop.

The loop is broken up into segments by box borders. These segments are all index lines either ALL moving clockwise or ALL moving counterclockwise, to be determined by the solver.

Index Lines: The digit in the Nth cell along the line (starting from where the loop enters the box in the deduced direction) indicates the position along the line where the digit N appears. For example: 2143 would be a valid line (with 2 as the beginning); the 1st digit, 2, indicates that the 2nd digit is a 1, and so on.

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