Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Into the Darkest of Winters

(Published on 16. February 2026, 21:06 by The Book Wyrm)


This puzzle was created as a gift for Yttrio during the 2025 secret satan event.

Rules:

  • Chiaroscuro: Shade some cells so that all groups of orthogonally connected shaded cells have an even number of cells and all groups of orthogonally connected unshaded cells have an odd number of cells. Two groups cannot have the same shape and size, counting rotations and reflections as the same.
  • Ice Walk: Draw a loop that moves orthogonally through the centres of cells and passes through every circle. The loop cannot turn on shaded cells. The loop may intersect itself on shaded cells, but not on unshaded cells. Every unshaded stretch of cells on the loop must contain a digit equal to the length of that unshaded stretch of cells.
  • If a circle is in an unshaded cell, it contains a digit equal to the length of the unshaded stretch of cells on the loop passing through it.
    If a circle is in a shaded cell, the loop must intersect itself on that cell.
  • Japanese Sums: Place a digit from 1-9 into each unshaded cell so that digits don't repeat in any row, column, or unshaded area.
    Clues outside the grid give the sum of continuous runs of unshaded cells in the corresponding row/column, in order.
    For the purposes of these clues, the value of all cells on the loop is twice the digit in that cell.
    A ? represents a value from 0-9. Leading 0s are allowed.
    A * represents any number of clues, including none.

For aditional clarity an example of a valid grid has been given.

Main Puzzle:
Penpa link: Click Here

Solution code: c11, top to bottom. Write S for shaded cells, and the number otherwise (13 characters).

Last changed on yesterday, 19:54

Solved by yttrio, Christounet, Las4one, h5663454
Full list

Comments

yesterday, 19:54 by The Book Wyrm
Fixed solution code

on 16. February 2026, 21:14 by Christounet
The leading 0 is quite the satanic rule indeed! Very challenging and very enjoyable. Thanks :)

on 16. February 2026, 21:13 by yttrio
This was an amazing gift! Once I wrapped my head around the rules, I was able to make somewhat slow but steady progress as things magically resolved beautifully, sometimes from clues I didn't initially expect to be immediately useful.

This was a joy to solve from start to finish!

Difficulty:5
Rating:N/A
Solved:4 times
Observed:1 times
ID:000RHZ

Puzzle combination Shading puzzle

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Solution code:

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