Kodama
(Published on 20. January 2022, 04:32 by zetamath)
Normalish sudoku rules apply. Put the digits 0-9 into each row column and box once each. In order to accomodate this, each row, column, and box will have one S-cell which contains exactly two digits.
Digits on an X will sum to 10. If an S-cell is on an X, all digits are included in the X. For example, if a (23) S-cell is next to a 5 on an X, that is valid.
Green lines in the grid are whisper lines. Adjacent digits on whisper lines must be at least 5 apart. If an S-cell is on a whisper line, the whisper constraint must apply to both digits separately. For example, 5 - 0 - (78) - 2 is a valid whisper, with the (78) a single S-cell.
Have fun, leave a comment if you enjoy the puzzle!
(Note that the CTC app allows you to enter 0 just as any other digit, so no special considerations are needed for this unusual rule set.)
Solution code: The digits in the s-cells from the first row to the last, with the lower of the two digits in each row entered first.
Comments
on 14. October 2024, 20:49 by Exigus
Enjoyed it! Even though I made one tiny unsound logical deduction shortly after the break in and realising where that was took about half half my solve time.
on 4. December 2023, 20:28 by StephenR
Somewhat brutish (but not nasty or short), and easy to slip up if e.g you overlook certain possibilites for Xs. Very clever, though.
on 11. March 2022, 22:45 by Christounet
That was great logic, and indeed a much harder break-in to spot than Archa ! Another great example of the potency of S-cells.
on 22. January 2022, 15:31 by Playmaker6174
I couldn't believe that I finally finished this one, like really. I broke this one too many times just because I forgot that one possibility for pencil mark, and once I fixed it the puzzle became somewhat satisfying. I wish that I weren't that stupid.
on 21. January 2022, 03:16 by henrypijames
For me, this one was indeed 4 stars difficulty and not nearly as hard as Acha - especially the break-in was natural and instant (it basically fell into my lap, didn't need to look around for it at all), whereas breaking into Acha was a long struggle.
on 20. January 2022, 09:08 by KNT
that was one of the most satisfying solves i've ever done but you also are a psychopath to think this is a 4 star puzzle
[Did you think this was harder than Archa? I just went with 4 because, after some back and forth, that was where Archa ended and I felt this was similar, but I'll change it if people agree.]
--
This was absolutely harder than Archa. Archa had a very telegraphed break in (it was very obvious there was something in the puzzle (row 9) that just couldn't work without S-cells. In this puzzle, it's WAY more obscured, & even when you find the general AREA of the board to look, the break in is still not easy at all! Whispers were much harder for me to wrap my head around for S-cell than renban. Not to mention the solve after the break-in is slightly harder as well.
I'm also saying this AFTER I've done Archa, which means I still had a puzzle to prepare me for some of the X logic. If I did this without doing Archa beforehand, I definitely would've found it even more difficult.
But this is definitely a cooler puzzle than Archa. Not even in the same league imo.
on 20. January 2022, 05:18 by starwarigami
The break in is a genius piece of setting, but impossible to see if you're not asking the right questions. So ask the right questions, or you'll be missing out on an amazing puzzle! I'm so happy to see the s-cell idea being taken to such awesome places
on 20. January 2022, 04:41 by Vebby
Loved testing this! Just as good if not better than Archa, which is extremely high praise.
