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The Sudokutown Murders
🕑 Added 2022-03-17 11:20:32 +0000 UTCAs mentioned in yesterday's video, here is the fascinating murder mystery sudoku from Nordy and Loric!
Depending on feedback, we might do a video solve of this in due course. Thanks to Nordy and Loric for suggesting this to us. Enjoy!
https://app.crackingthecryptic.com/sudoku/d74FbrgFBd
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits within a cage cannot repeat, and must sum to the small clue in the top left corner (if given). Killer Cages are referred to as "crime scenes" in the following rules:
WATCH OUT! A serial killer is on the loose and is leaving crime scenes and dead digits all over Sudokutown. Luckily, Sudokutown's #1 Detective is on the case, and a few brave citizens have stepped forward to provide eye-witness accounts. But will the killer be caught in time?
One of the digits is a serial killer. All instances of the serial killer digit appear on a single, 1-cell wide orthogonally connected path (Snake). The serial killer's path starts in the largest crime scene (44 Killer Cage, total of 8 cells), then moves to the next largest crime scene (7 cells), then the next largest crime scene (6 cells), and so on. Exactly two adjacent cells on the serial killer's path appear in each crime scene, with one cell containing the serial killer and the other cell containing a "dead" digit. Once a digit is "dead," that digit cannot appear in any future crime scenes. After the final digit is "dead," the serial killer escapes off the edge of the grid (caught in the sequel, perhaps?).
The serial killer appears on both ends of the path. The serial killer's path may not touch itself orthogonally or diagonally. The serial killer and "dead" digit may appear within a crime scene in any order. The serial killer never re-enters a crime scene. Some instances of the serial killer digit will appear outside of crime scenes—those instances may appear anywhere along the path, as long as the serial killer travels through the crime scenes in descending order (in other words, the serial killer can "take a break" between crime scenes).
One of the digits is Sudokutown's #1 Detective. The detective digit is trying to catch the serial killer but is always one step behind. The detective digit cannot appear in crime scenes, cannot appear on the serial killer's path, and cannot appear orthogonally adjacent to the serial killer digit. The detective digit appears in the cell with a star. Some witnesses have spotted the serial killer's path. The clues outside the grid show the sum of the digits on the corresponding diagonal that are on the serial killer's path (digits that are not on the serial killer's path are not counted toward the sum).
There is an example in the attachment, which can be played here:
Comments
Scott Ramsdale
Wow, what an amazing puzzle, by far the best one I've managed to solve. Spent a good 15 mins trying to understand the rules, THEN I saw the example, which helped no end. Not the fastest solve, 81 mins, but I am just glad that I could solve it, I wish I had one of those memory stick things from Men in Black, so that I could solve it again! Great work Nordi and Loric
Clayton Newman
The example puzzle was really helpful. But it was also a little misleading for me. I got the idea that the victim number had to match the cage size which it does in the example puzzle. The puzzle kept breaking until I realized that was not in the rules just the example. It still took me a very long time but I got it. Yay. Very fun and interesting puzzle.
This took me countless hours - wild puzzle
Mister D
Thank you so much for your reply! This was the bit that was tripping me up: "after the final crime scene, the killer’s path may continue" For some reason, I interpreted "After the final digit is "dead," the serial killer escapes off the edge of the grid" as "the final scene has one edge cell, so that's where the path will end/where the criminal will escape from". Time to give the puzzle a proper shot now that I finally understand it properly.
Sorry, messed up my original reply! Here are the main points about the killer’s path in case it’s helpful: -every instance of the serial killer is on the path -the path must travel through the crime scenes in descending size order -the killer can take a break between crime scenes, but doesn’t have to -after the final crime scene, the killer’s path may continue. Feel free to DM me @Nordy on the CTC discord if you would like!
Mister D
I feel like I must be misunderstanding something about the rules, or missing something incredibly obvious. From the very start, I fail to see how the path could possibly make it to the top left box without breaking any of the rules.
I'm not the best puzzler, but I do alright. Took me about 7 hours total and 4 complete restarts to get this, but I did it! Very proud of that. I loved this puzzle. Thanks for this!
Fantastic! This would be a great solve for the channel. It's a wordy ruleset, but the puzzle itself is very easy and fun to do. Reminds me of the themed Halloween puzzle a while back about wandering through a cemetery.
What I loved about my solve - I don't know if there was another way around - but I only discovered the identity of the murderer as my very last step, using the last witness to disambiguate it. I really felt like a detective! Identifying the "victims", narrowing down the "list of suspects" quite early, using the "witness testimonies" to establish the murderer path around the detective, all of it felt so thematic!
It made for a beautiful sunday solve, I absolutely adored it. Thank you for sharing this one with us! Congrats to the builders of this murder mystery sudoku!
Ah, sorry it didn’t help. Feel free to DM me on the CTC Discord @Nordy for any help/questions/otherwise. It sounds like you are very close to unraveling the puzzle!
Sadly that doesn't really help. I gave up in the end. I think I figured out the path (except for in rows 1 and 2), and although I know what digit the killer is, i'm not using that information until I can find a way to prove it logically. Yet I still can't get it. I have all of the stars filled in too and the 24 killer clue is working fine, but there's no way for the 22 clue to work. I probably have to start over a 6th time.
The example was super helpful! I had to take two separate goes at this one, mis-scanned one small thing towards the beginning of my first attempt that threw a lot of my logic WAY off and didn't catch it until over an hour in when a little killer broke. Made a handful of errors in my second attempt too, but was able to backtrack and find them, and eventually got through it! It was lots of fun, and I've gotta admit I feel pretty proud to have finished it ^^
Phil Brady
I've read the rules 3 times and I'm still confused. Too much going on in them for me to get it. I'll leave this one for the experts.
Nordy here. Thank you everyone for the kind words and checking out the puzzle! We are very happy people are enjoying it. I wanted to chime in with some answers to the most common questions we get, in case it will clarify the rules for future solvers. 1) Digits may repeat on Little Killers, if allowed by other rules. 2) The detective being “one step behind” the killer has no effect on the rules. You can just delete that sentence.
Sorry you are struggling. We should have provided this rules clarification: digits along Little Killers may repeat if allowed by other rules
Scott Ab
Wow! I did it. Couldn't have done it without the coloring.
I thought I broke the puzzle the first time, started over and got to the same point, but then I finally realized that I was forcing different digits for the sum on one of the diagonal arrows. Unlikely that this will help, but you never know...
Puzzle seems broken to me. I've understood the rules, but no matter how I try to tackle it, I can't make my little killers work without having the line touch itself, the killer see itself, or put large numbers where they just can't go. Started over about 4 times now over about 3 hours. Just not getting it. Edit: Restarted, and completed it in less than 30 minutes. Not sure why I was so stuck on it before, actually was not that difficult this time around.
