The first step of this puzzle is to solve the Arrow Sudoku (you can refer to the rules here). The solved Arrow Sudoku should look like this:
The next step is to solve the logic puzzles to figure out the roles of the bosses and the positions of the departments. Solving this portion of the puzzle should yield the following result:
To get the final answer, solvers will need to get the aha, clued from “pocketing” and “monsters” in the flavourtext, which suggest Pokemon. The initial letters of the 9 departments yield HOENN GYMS, and sharp-eyed solvers may also notice the cluing of various pokemon typings, Hoenn badges, Elite Four and the Champion in the description of the bosses. The green gem (emerald) also points towards Pokemon Emerald (which later also serves as a disambiguation of the Champion). Each of the 13 bosses are actually Hoenn gym leaders or Elite Four members.
The table below shows the identity of each of the bosses. If one rearranges the bosses from A to M, they would notice that the bosses’ names are listed in alphabetical order, a confirmation that they are in the right direction.
| Boss (in given order) | Identity | Emerald Number | Extracted Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| J | Tate and Liza | 3 | T |
| C | Flannery | 7 | R |
| D | Glacia | 5 | I |
| K | Wallace | 6 | C |
| B | Drake | 4 | K |
| G | Phoebe | 2 | H |
| M | Winona | 4 | O |
| E | Juan | 2 | U |
| L | Wattson | 5 | S |
| H | Roxanne | 7 | E |
| F | Norman | 4 | M |
| A | Brawly | 3 | A |
| I | Sidney | 4 | N |
This yields the cluephrase TRICK HOUSE MAN, which is a character in the Hoenn region known as TRICK MASTER.
Author’s notes
I (Chork) am a Pokemon fan and have always wanted to set a Pokemon puzzle for years. Finally managed to set a puzzle that combines two of my interests - Pokemon and logic puzzles. I hope everyone enjoyed this variant of the Sudoku puzzle - Arrow Sudoku.
On a side note, “arrowing” work is a local phrase, referring to the act of delegating work to subordinates (usually comes with a negative connotation). The working population in Singapore would certainly resonate or even experience this at some stage of their careers. When the office theme of Round 1 was fixed, I made up my mind to find some hilarious way to introduce this term into the hunt, leading to the birth of this thematic puzzle.
The setting of an Arrow Sudoku with certain constraints (for extraction) proved to be harder than expected - great thanks to Adib who helped to set it!