Colossal Fillomino with Sandwich Sudoku
(Published on 28. September 2022, 15:50 by MagnusJosefsson)
Rules
Apply sandwich Sudoku rules for the Sudoku grid.
Apply standard Fillomino rules for the Fillomino grid.
The median value of the numbers in each box in the Fillomino grid must equal the number in the cell in the corresponding position in the Sudoku.
The boxes are 3x3 cells large (3x1/1x3 at the edges) and colored with contrasting colors so they are easier to identify.
- Each row, column, and box of the central 9x9 grid must contain the digits from 1 to 9 once each.
- Each number outside of the grid must equal the sum of the digits sandwiched between 1 and 9 in that row/column. Numbers on top/bottom of the grid indicates sandwich sums for columns and numbers left/right of the grid indicate sandwich sums for rows.
- Divide the grid into regions and enter into each cell the size of its region.
- No two regions of the same size may share an edge.
Example:
Partial example to illustrate ruleset (not necessarily extendable to valid full puzzle)
The puzzle:
Sudoku grid:
Fillomino grid:
Links for solving online (Penpa+): With colors / Without colors
Links for solving online (SudokuPad/CTC) [Thanks wooferzfg!]: Colossal Fillomino + Sandwich Sudoku
Solution check requires numbers in all cells of both grids
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Solution code: Enter the numbers from the following cells of the Fillomino grid: The first 10 cells in column 3, then the last 10 cells in row 3, then the first 10 cells in the middle row.
Comments
on 10. August 2024, 20:04 by Mutx
好耶！
on 18. July 2024, 20:44 by kamkam
Well... This was breathtaking. 8 hours of pure fillomino. This wasn't as hard as I thought, the most complicated thing is to see where the next step is. One of my favorite puzzle of all time !
on 4. March 2024, 23:32 by Myxo
Very fun marathon puzzle :)
on 4. March 2024, 02:14 by wpolly
6h43m solve. The interaction of medians and fillomino logic is genius.
on 26. March 2023, 08:29 by Agent
Wow, this has to be one of the most impressive constructions I've ever seen! It's incredible how everything comes together, a very satisfying marathon.
on 10. February 2023, 14:48 by Lizzy01
It took me almost 8 1/2 hours, but I did it! Awesome puzzle.
on 4. February 2023, 18:31 by Niverio
Very long fun marathon solve! Funnily enough this is not my longest puzzle solve, it needed to be double my solve time to actually achieve that :D But the flow and smoothness is out of this world. Absolute beauty of a puzzle.
on 29. November 2022, 20:48 by Silverstep
Absolutely insane (in a good way). Took me 5 hours, although some of it was me choosing a unique colour for each region size. Also 33 is my new favourite number.
on 10. November 2022, 01:30 by Christounet
Done !!!
As the other solvers noted before, this is by far the longest solve I've ever done so far. If I'm honest, when I first saw that puzzle, I thought I would not dare try to solve such a huge grid, for many reasons. Then I did try and solve some of your other puzzles and had a lot of fun doing that, so it tickled me enough that I came back here to take a look at that beast... Well, almost 1000 digits/numbers and a few hours later, I must say I enjoyed it very very much and it was worth every minute I spent. I did solve it bit by bit over several days while solving other "small" puzzles in the meantime, so that I could savour it little by little. I must day I'll miss it because it has been a very special journey. When I finished the puzzle, I spent a few moments looking at the grid with a little nostalgy that it was already over. So, thank you very much for taking so much time and care to set this wonderful puzzle.
on 4. November 2022, 16:33 by hurrdurr
How you are able to construct this is beyond me. An absolute stunner, worth every second of my time.
on 29. October 2022, 17:54 by Jaych
Somehow, the hardest part of a puzzle that took me nearly 5 and a half hours to finish was putting in the solution code correctly.
I adore how no individual piece of logic was impossible to discover, but each one was just difficult and precise enough to keep me on my toes the whole way through. Instant add to favorites.
on 13. October 2022, 14:02 by henrypijames
7 hours for me.
I was so scared of making mistakes that remain undetected for a looong time, but miraculously every mistake I did make was either caught by myself quickly, or had soon led to a contraction that forced me to correct it.
on 12. October 2022, 20:11 by LordZeppelin
That. Was. Legendary! Thank you!
on 10. October 2022, 14:33 by josh_johnson
Wow! This is an epic puzzle in every sense of the word.
I found the difficulty of the deductions within the puzzle to be a consistent 3-4 star difficulty throughout.
on 2. October 2022, 00:29 by MagnusJosefsson
Thank you everyone for solving this puzzle! When posting it, I was unsure whether such a long puzzle would even see enough solves to be rated, so I'm both surprised and thrilled to see it get so many solves so quickly.
Thanks also for your kind feedback, your words really warm my heart. Hearing of people spending a really long time on my puzzle and still finding it enjoyable and rewarding means everything to me.
on 1. October 2022, 21:45 by Euclid
Wow, what a roller coaster! This has to be my proudest solve on this site.
I was initially heartbroken to realize I had broken the puzzle about 9 hours in. I just wanted to give up, but I came back to it the next day and was luckily able to salvage my mistake with only minor corrections.
I actually don't think any of the individual deductions are too difficult, the biggest challenge is remaining precise throughout the entire solve.
Truly remarkably puzzle Magnus, I can't believe the time that must have gone into setting this. Thank-you so much!
on 30. September 2022, 22:57 by lerroyy
Really an incredible puzzle and construction! thanks
on 30. September 2022, 12:50 by Snookerfan
Exceptional puzzle, a long but satisfying journey. The difficulty was fair all the way through. I did have a hard time entering the solution code though by wrongly identifying row 3 and column 3, which made me a little nervous after 8 hours of solving. Thank you so much!
on 30. September 2022, 10:10 by MagnusJosefsson
Added SudokuPad links, thanks wooferzfg!
on 30. September 2022, 09:48 by wooferzfg
Absolutely incredible, thank you.
For anyone who wants to solve this in SudokuPad -
Colossal Fillomino: https://tinyurl.com/yckse97z
Sandwich Sudoku: https://tinyurl.com/muz58zfw
on 30. September 2022, 08:39 by tesseralis
That was... wow. I'm speechless. This feels like one of those "World's Largest Crossword" novelty puzzles in scope if they actually made it *good*. Part of me wants to print this out and hang out the solved grid on my wall!
on 30. September 2022, 06:49 by thoughtbyte
Truly astounding! This is a puzzle I will not forget. Thank you Magnus!
on 30. September 2022, 04:21 by Vebby
A joyful meditative solving experience, huge satisfaction to successfully complete. Insane construction, a stellar feat to create this, hats off Magnus! Thank you for this labour of love.
on 29. September 2022, 23:05 by RJBlarmo
That's enough counting to 33 for one day :)
Fantastic construction, unbelievable how much unique logic there is packed into this puzzle.
on 29. September 2022, 18:19 by the_cogito
I'm not normally keen on solving these kinds of marathon puzzles, but decided to give this a crack, and what a font of unique and interesting deductions. Compelling to the end, thanks Magnus.
on 29. September 2022, 17:21 by Mrtn
Thank you for this mad puzzle. I enjoyed every second of the hours spent on it.
on 29. September 2022, 05:59 by polar
The ambition of this puzzle is sheer madness and I'm all for it! A beautiful way to spend a few hours and I'm not in the least bit surprised to hear it took you over 100h to set.. The smoothness throughout the entire solve is astounding to me - a true labour of love I'm sure!
I hope more people aren't put off by the size of this grid and give it a go. There isn't anything overly difficult in there at all, 'just' a giant fillomino to be enjoyed. It's also the perfect type of puzzle to be able to dip in and out of thanks to how well it has been constructed. Quite a unique masterpiece indeed.
Thank you Magnus!!
on 29. September 2022, 03:11 by ONeill
This is an incredible construction! Every mini 3x3 of the Fillomino felt like its own unique puzzle. This is by far the longest I've spent solving any puzzle but I'm glad I've done it. Thank you for this extraordinary puzzle :)
on 29. September 2022, 01:59 by KNT
What an amazing journey. I know it might sound silly to say this of a grid of this size, but I actually expected this puzzle to be harder. Every deduction was smooth, and if this grid were half the size I probably would rate it 4 stars difficulty.
This puzzle is so masterfully designed - despite the ridiculous size, I always knew exactly where to look and what to do. Thanks so much for this treat, Magnus. :)
on 28. September 2022, 15:48 by MagnusJosefsson
This puzzle is my second variant of Fillomino/Sudoku hybrid.
However, while the first one ("Chaos FilloSudokumino") was quite approachable, this one will be very challenging.
The grid size and large number of interactions between the grids makes this puzzle time-consuming and committing to solve, and I realize most solvers will probably skip it.
However, if you do choose to attack this puzzle, be sure that I am here to support you in any way I can. The last thing I want you to do is spend several hours on it only to break it and give up in frustration. So if you happen to break the puzzle, reach out to me and I will point out which section the error is in. If you work your way deep into the puzzle only to get stuck, let me know and I will give a small hint where to focus next. In my mind, getting some assistance once or twice when breaking the puzzle or receiving a few small hints does not at all diminish the achievement of solving a puzzle of this size. You may contact me on Discord (MAGNUS#4295), or you can leave a hidden comment here.
On a more positive note, I personally love this puzzle and there is a reason that I have stuck with it spending well over 100h constructing and testing it. So if you can find the committment and patience to get through the solve, I think you will find it very rewarding.
Good luck and enjoy the puzzle!
