{"id":34302,"date":"2025-10-12T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=34302"},"modified":"2025-10-12T09:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T16:01:51","slug":"fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun with Caves by Cave Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of: <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/asoss\/>&#8220;A Story of Self-setting Sudoku&#8221;<\/a>.)<br \/>\n<i>Here is another challenge that was hidden within our <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/1000000-paperclip-10000-sudoku-puzzlehunt-contest-and-on-going-puzzle-details\/>Sudoku puzzlehunt<\/a>. We&#8217;re setting up a live endgame stream later this year with the winning team of the puzzlehunt, and wanted to share more of the special puzzles they solved in advance.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>After solvers discovered and interacted with a <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/s\/250709Cave>Google Doc here<\/a>, they got a set of apparent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/cave-rules-and-info\/\">Cave<\/a> puzzles. Note: this puzzle resolves to a 9-letter string but not an English word\/phrase so without playing in the puzzlehunt this won&#8217;t have meaning to you.<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/FunWithCaves.png\" alt=\"Fun with Caves by Cave Johnson\" width=500><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/FunWithCaves.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/251012CaveJ>solve online<\/a> (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X&#8217;s)<\/p>\n<p><b>Rules:<\/b> In these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/cave-rules-and-info\/\">caves<\/a>, horizontal portals lead to horizontal portals, and vertical portals lead to vertical portals, with orange going to blue and vice versa. No portals in midair; always have them attached to a wall of the cave.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note:<\/b>\u00a0Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.com\/channels\/1059513302847336469\/1388325118698065981\/1388325118698065981\">Twelve Months of Sudoku?<\/a>\u00a0post\u00a0on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/RNNfEBEbQS\">this link<\/a>\u00a0for basic access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of: &#8220;A Story of Self-setting Sudoku&#8221;.) Here is another challenge that was hidden within our Sudoku puzzlehunt. We&#8217;re setting up a live endgame stream later this year with the winning team of the puzzlehunt, and wanted to share more of the special puzzles they solved in advance. After solvers discovered and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,60,3,55],"tags":[30,56,61,179],"class_list":["post-34302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cave","category-puzzle-hunt","category-puzzle","category-variation","tag-cave-2","tag-variation-2","tag-puzzlehunt","tag-sunday"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fun with Caves by Cave Johnson - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here is another challenge that was hidden within our recent Sudoku puzzlehunt.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fun with Caves by Cave Johnson - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here is another challenge that was hidden within our recent Sudoku puzzlehunt.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-12T16:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-12T16:01:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/FunWithCaves.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"drsudoku\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"drsudoku\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/16f28006b2b31c98ce6d8d1affd60275\"},\"headline\":\"Fun with Caves by Cave Johnson\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-12T16:00:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-12T16:01:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":211,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2025\\\/FunWithCaves.png\",\"keywords\":[\"cave\",\"variation\",\"puzzlehunt\",\"sunday\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cave\",\"Puzzle Hunt\",\"Puzzle\",\"Variation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/fun-with-caves-by-cave-johnson\\\/\",\"name\":\"Fun with Caves by Cave Johnson - 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