RAT RUN 35: Locked Out
(Published on 22. April 2026, 02:29 by marty_sears)
Normal sudoku rules apply.
AIM OF EXPERIMENT: Finkz and Phinx must both reach different cupcakes by finding a path through the maze. The paths must not visit any cell more than once, cross themselves or each other, share cells, or pass through any thick maze walls.
As well as moving orthogonally, they may move diagonally if there's a 2x2 space in which to do so, but may never pass diagonally through a round wall-spot on the corner of a cell.
BLACKCURRANTS: If two digits are joined by a blackcurrant, one is double the other.
REDCURRANTS: If two digits are joined by a redcurrant, one is odd and the other is even.
TELEPORTS: Entering a teleport will cause a rat to be instantly transported to the matching coloured teleport. Matching teleports always have identical digits, but teleports that don't match always have different digits.
TEST CONSTRAINT: In this experiment, for any path segment connecting two teleports, no other cells along the segment may equal either of the two teleport digits at its ends, or lie numerically between them. Eg: if a path segment joins two teleports with the digits 3 and 6, then the other digits along this path segment may not include a 3, 4, 5 or 6.
Solution code: Digits visited by either rat in row 3, from left to right
Comments
yesterday, 22:17 by ako
Lotta well hidden gems - I mean: real GEMS - I understand not everybody will be able to appreciate fully - me, pointing this out, included. Funny t'wasn't too much sudoku for me this time. At the end I almost got angry, cause the app wouldn't recognize a solve, although all the lines worked out perfectly and there were no other conflicts either ... until I realized, the last cupcake needed a digit too; rofl now. Thank you once again for this experience of sweet pain.
on 22. April 2026, 22:54 by blackjackfitz
Huzzah!
on 22. April 2026, 20:15 by Elker
Very fun, can’t wait for the next installment.
on 22. April 2026, 19:03 by Nairurian
A lovely continuation to the first(?) sudoku series with lore!
This one took me a lot longer than it should have since I managed to misread/remember the test constraint twice (thinking that the digits had to be between the teleport numbers, then thinking it had to be a consecutive series of numbers) - basically, the rats are probably smarter than me.
on 22. April 2026, 16:32 by johncj
Thank you once more for the adventures with Phinx and Finks.
Perfect on my train journey from Cph to Gbg.
on 22. April 2026, 14:46 by TrivialHomology
Anothger amazing rat run, thank you so much! I found the first half of the solve rather easy, but towards the end it settled into the usual difficulty for rat runs, so 4* for me.
on 22. April 2026, 14:44 by Vionix
Very fun puzzle, thank you!
on 22. April 2026, 14:00 by DaniK
Wonderful! (as always)
on 22. April 2026, 12:43 by Franjo
The amazing journey continues! So thank you very much for creating and sharing this beautiful episode.The suspense of the story reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock …
on 22. April 2026, 11:53 by Christounet
Riveting story again! Very impatient to know what Elliot locked away before he passed. Thanks for the puzzle too of course :)
on 22. April 2026, 11:05 by smars
Cool puzzle. I rated it 4 stars myself because of what I felt was a lot of jumping around in the solve path. If you are lucky you spot the next step at once, but I felt it was often not obvious in which box to look.
on 22. April 2026, 10:50 by Rab3aron
Lovely puzzle! 3 stars for me
on 22. April 2026, 10:47 by QuiltyAsCharged
Terrific teleportation trials!
It's so interesting how different solvers have such different experiences of a puzzle's difficulty. I found this one more challenging, although I got off to a quick start. The details matter and sometimes they hide in plain sight.
on 22. April 2026, 10:29 by mscha
Very, very nice!
There were several moments where I thought I was completely stuck - until something clicked and I made some progress. After the third time this happened, the puzzle gave up and I could finish it.
This is the first one in a while where I agree with the consensus difficulty.
on 22. April 2026, 09:33 by by81996672
I was surprised to see the difficulty level marked as four stars. I felt it was only about 1.5 stars, and it was completely incomparable to the previous difficulty level marked as four stars.
on 22. April 2026, 09:32 by Fool on Hill
Some really interesting point in this one - not the hardest, but a definite challenge
on 22. April 2026, 08:34 by Bootenks
That was a lovely puzzle! I really enjoyed the interesting deductions. Thanks for sharing it.
on 22. April 2026, 03:29 by antiknight
Cool puzzle but on the easier side this time!
