Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

This antiknight thermo puzzle is meant to be relatively approachable if you find the right deductions at the right time. See the hints below if you get stuck during the breakin (which consists of two parts).

Play Online: CTC, sudokulab

Rules

Normal Sudoku Rules

Place the digits 1 through 9 in each empty cell. Digits must not repeat within the same row, column, or box.

Knight's Move Constraint

Digits must not repeat in cells that are a chess knight's move apart.

Thermo Rules

Digits along each thermometer must increase starting from the bulb end.

Hints

The breakin of this puzzle consists of two parts. Both parts require you to do coloring/lettering because pencilmarking 4-cell thermos is rarely good idea.

The first part of the breakin is similar to #EF2(gdc) or #6IW(phistomefel). Checkout these puzzles and try to spot the similarities to this puzzle if you have troubles getting started.

The second part of the breakin begins after a certain digit is lettered/colored 7 times in the grid. Click on the grey box in case you get stuck at this point of the solve.

Think about the corners of the middle box (R4C4,R6C4,R4C6,R6C6) and how they relate to R3C5,R5C3,R5C7. Conclude that R4C4 must be the same digit as R5C7.

Remark

If you want to solve this puzzle in "hard mode", you can also ignore the thermo going through box 9. There will be two deadly patterns in the finished grid but row 1 is still resolvable.