Dragonsnake (Yin Yang Ambiguity Sudoku)
(Published on 13. September 2022, 09:00 by Agent)
To continue the Yin Yang hybrid saga, I took a first stab at an ambiguity type of puzzle. In this puzzle there is one giant line that either behaves as a renban, or as a German whisper. The nature of the line is defined by Yin Yang shading. I hope you will enjoy! It shouldn't be too hard compared to my other hybrid puzzles.
Rules
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Normal Yin Yang rules apply. That is, shade some cells in the grid such that all shaded cells are connected and all unshaded cells are connected. No 2x2 box may be fully shaded or fully unshaded.
- Along the red line, each run of cells with the same shading contains a non-repeating set of consecutive digits in any order.
- Along the red line, digits in each pair of adjacent cells with different shading must differ by at least 5.
- The grey cell is shaded.
Puzzle links
Have fun solving!
Solution code: Row 8 (from left to right) then row 9 (from left to right)
Comments
on 21. March 2024, 00:46 by Piatato
Nice and smooth! Cool start.
on 20. March 2024, 21:02 by Virux
this was amazing. Took me an hour to finish, but well worth it. A truly amazing puzzle!
on 10. November 2023, 23:37 by NRB
I looked at this a while ago and knew it must be possible but couldn’t get it… on a long commute tonight, i really wanted a yin Yang puzzle and remembered this one…. So pleased I revisited this, it was lovely in its challenge.. the initial break in needs an understanding of German whisper and renban logic that is probably at the intermediate level, but if you get it it does flow quite well with some beautiful tricky bits in between. Loved it, especially the personal achievement of not being able to before but now being able to.
on 25. September 2023, 00:56 by cascadeshiker
Fantastic puzzle. Very original. Amazing to me was that the very last digit I placed was in Box 1 where I first started.
on 18. July 2023, 20:22 by StephenR
A very elegant construction, thanks. Took me a while for the cogs to start whirring, but once they started it all seemed exceedingly smooth.
on 29. October 2022, 00:28 by wisty
Lovely puzzle! I really enjoyed the logic of the first half especially - it made great use of various yin yang concepts.
-- Thank you @wisty, I'm glad to hear all of this!
on 20. September 2022, 21:38 by Klausku
CTC begged me to try this puzzle., so I did. Well, this is one of the most brilliant puzzles I have ever done. Wow, just wow!
-- Thank you @Klausku! I'm pleased to hear it felt that way.
on 20. September 2022, 10:16 by Andrewsarchus
Very nice! Like many others, I had to stop the CtC video and try this myself. Glad I did! Great puzzle!
-- Thank you @Andrewsarchus! I'm glad you stopped to attempt the puzzle and didn't regret it.
on 18. September 2022, 18:25 by Agent
Thank you so much @kjholt @SimplePurpleFrog @Whaargaarbl @Playmaker6174 @Allagem @michelkraemer!
on 18. September 2022, 16:55 by michelkraemer
Very smooth solve path. This puzzle is a lot of fun!
on 18. September 2022, 10:27 by Allagem
At CtC's video suggestion, I tried this puzzle without help, and then ran into a situation that at first glance APPEARED to break the puzzle, so I assumed I was too dumb to understand the rules and gave up prematurely. Turns out not only did I understand the rules correctly, but my supposedly broken partial solution was actually completely correct and I merely overlooked the only valid way left to not break the rules. People who have solved this puzzle probably know exactly what I am talking about, but I want to encourage anyone who hasn't solved this puzzle to be brave and try it. It's an intimidating puzzle at first, but totally approachable and very fun to solve! Agent deserves all the recognition he has received for this puzzle plus more. Fantastic puzzle! :D
on 18. September 2022, 10:19 by Playmaker6174
Absolutely lovely and fun-tastic puzzle! The Yin Yang hybrid with some small additions really makes the solve so satisfying and relieving to go through ;)
on 18. September 2022, 09:29 by Whaargaarbl
This is an absolute masterpiece. This belongs to the hall of fame of all time great puzzles!
on 18. September 2022, 00:12 by SimplePurpleFrog
Wow, what a stunning puzzle. Just the right side of challenging for me. Fabulous logic, I found it reasonably approachable, though it does help tremendously to have done yin-yang logic before.
on 17. September 2022, 09:39 by kjholt
I'm admittedly fairly new to sudoku variants but the layers of logic (and keeping them all straight), while beautiful, made the puzzle more than 3 stars to me (rather than less as some have said). So three seems fair :)
on 16. September 2022, 16:16 by Agent
Thank you @DaniK @thoughtbyte @polar @Christounet @thrutch!
on 16. September 2022, 14:28 by thrutch
Fantastic! I got stuck for far too long about halfway through, but my persistence paid off as the rest of the solve was as enjoyable as everything up to that point.
on 15. September 2022, 11:50 by Christounet
You hit the jackpot with that one ! The ambiguity line provided some very nice logic at the start and a fun ride after that. Thanks.
on 14. September 2022, 20:38 by polar
Yes please do keep the YY puzzles coming! Lovely series so far :) Thanks
on 14. September 2022, 20:38 by thoughtbyte
Fantastic puzzle - loving the series, thanks @Agent!
on 14. September 2022, 16:48 by DaniK
Super fun puzzle! Thanks for setting it :)
on 14. September 2022, 05:00 by Agent
Thank you @KNT @Jesper @MagnusJosefsson @cdwg2000 @Snookerfan @marcmees @Dandelo @Niverio @Phistomefel @mathpesto @prodigis for such positive feedback! The Yin Yang hybrid saga has been a lot of fun so far, and all these kind comments motivate me to keep going with it :-)
on 13. September 2022, 22:49 by prodigis
Absolutely gorgeous – and easily tricks you into thinking you've broken it until you wrap your head around the rules!
on 13. September 2022, 21:54 by mathpesto
Such a brilliant ruleset and such a fantastic execution!
on 13. September 2022, 21:52 by Phistomefel
Wonderful! Thank you so much for setting this little gem, Agent! :)
on 13. September 2022, 18:29 by Niverio
Gorgeous, and I agree with cdwg that this is more of a 2-star. Very nice hybrid!
on 13. September 2022, 17:11 by Dandelo
Very nice, the interaction of Yy, GW and Renban is really beautiful.
on 13. September 2022, 17:08 by marcmees
a beauty. thanks.
on 13. September 2022, 13:41 by Snookerfan
Lovely approachable puzzle, thank you!
on 13. September 2022, 11:03 by cdwg2000
Happy, difficulty is about 2 stars.
on 13. September 2022, 10:05 by MagnusJosefsson
Wonderful puzzle, just a joy to solve! Some really fresh ideas, yet never tricky to find, very smooth solution path!
on 13. September 2022, 09:38 by Jesper
Excellent! Very creative new use of the Yin Yang shading. Smooth solve.
on 13. September 2022, 09:36 by KNT
Great fun! Thanks agent
