Parasitic Training by Clocksmith
(Published on 28. June 2026, 12:49 by NXTMaster)
Related Puzzles: Parasite Sudoku: Larvae and Parasite Sudoku: Adults
The rules are as follows:
- Place the digits 1-4 once in every row, column, and region.
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Parasites: Draw parasites moving orthogonally through the grid that connect all circles that share the same digit. Parasites may not move diagonally, branch, or cross themselves nor each other, but they may touch themselves and each other otherwise. The start and end of each parasite must occur on distinct circles, and all circles belong to parasites. The two types of parasites are "larva" and "adult."
- Larvae must contain a total number of bends equal to the digit in its circles, and at least one of those bends must occur on a cell where its circle-digit appears outside of a circle.
- Adults must contain a total number of bends between each circle (not counting bends on circles) equal to the digit in its circles. Additionally, all the digits an adult crosses are grouped by the region they belong to, and the sum of all the digits in each group must be divisible by that adult's circle-digit.
Here is an example to illustrate the rules:
The puzzle is available on SudokuPad. Have fun solving!
Solution code: Every digit in the grid in reading order (from top left to bottom right) that is NOT part of a parasite.
Comments
on 6. July 2026, 04:46 by godoffours
After having failed to get a foothold in all the other parasite puzzles I've attempted, this was a nice change of pace :)
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Who doesn't enjoy a nice little snack once in a while? ;)
on 30. June 2026, 12:49 by NXTMaster
Rule wording and example image
on 29. June 2026, 13:58 by firespire
You start talking about Larvae and Adults without mentioning these are types of the Parasites.
Neither links to previous puzzles have example illustrations but I did find some of yours by clicking further.
I wasn't rigorous I sort of tried an idea and it appeared to work, like 'anothermember' coming here to enter a solution and find it was the correct one.
Don't think I'm cut out for anything harder than this.
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Thank you for pointing out my mistake with the rules. I also should have made an example image. Thank you for attempting the puzzle.
on 28. June 2026, 22:02 by anothermember
Had a hard time understanding the rules and still wasn't sure I got it right until the solution code worked.
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I believe there's a total of only seven puzzles on this site with these rules and all except this one are 5 star difficulty because it's almost impossible to make an easy puzzle with such a complex ruleset, but it's so much fun once you do get it. Thanks for giving the puzzle a chance
