Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Oh no! I accidentally dropped my Thermo-Sudoku on the floor, exactly like what had happened in 2020 on  trivial171and all the thermometers fell out! Can you help me put the puzzle back together?

Rules: Place a digit into each cell of the grid. In addition, place the ten thermometers into the grid.

• The thermometers must be placed into the grid in their original orientation. They may not be rotated or reflected.
• The thermometers may not overlap or cross each other. However, they may overlap the given digits in the grid.
• Normal Thermo-Sudoku rules apply. That is, each row, column, and boldly outlined 3 × 3 box must contain each of the digits 1, …, 9 exactly once, and the digits along each thermometer must increase starting from the bulb.

In October, Old Miles made a filled in puzzles like this one(but a little bit political for my taste so I put it in the hidden comment) which remind me of the one puzzle that interest me the most. That 2020 puzzle from trivial171 is exactly what interest me. It’s not hard so long as one think. In my mind, that puzzle in my mind, after 2 years, still represent the best this portal can offer. The placing remind me of a lot of placing type puzzles like pentos. But at the same time, it doesn’t have the issues i grudge about pentos or warships, like can’t remember the shapes(12, seriously, no)or can’t touch(which leads to other issues like too empty to fulfill my OCD needs). it provide the best the placing type of puzzles can offer. And the sudoku part is easy enough for any new solvers to try. It’s combine sudoku and placing puzzles perfectly.

Even at that time, i want to see what happened to the non straight thermos. Old MIles cn’t set one and I’m not a setter, yet. So i just put it in the bucket list and wait. When Old Miles set that puzzles, and say it wasn’t that hard to set, i was like, ok, bucket list, time to cross something off. To be honest, i did not expect this to be this level of ridiculous. Trival171’s puzzle has other thermos than straight, i was expecting something other than not straight. But then, i think, i already put 4 long one, why not spam some. It’ll lock the flow of the puzzles, why not do it? I know at some point I will set a one star and five star(not red star) puzzles to mark my floor and ceiling so i might as well do it. But judging from my history, one star will have a higher possible to get rating, so maybe i just risk it for this time only.

As for the design of this puzzle, it’s hard to find memorable structure. I remember the invisible clone strengthen my memory by reusing the same structure again and again. So this puzzle, either I made every structure equally memorable, as Old Miles did, or I need to assemble all parts in a picture-like form, which is even harder. Easy part, limit the anomaly. Not easy part, limit the parts. At the same time, the whole parts need to have some order. In the end, this puzzle is just ridiculous. The thermo and the given digits cross paths. Old Miles play test it without constantly checking thermos, which is a huge success in a placing puzzle when new solvers don’t need to spent time to remember all the shapes. Oh, i forgot to check puzzles for months, so i’m not sure if anyone post a similar one, it is an easy to think structure after all.

Update Feb

I did not know this is actually possible. the main thinking is separate thermos into symmetric ones and non-sym ones. 6X6's two box a row is actually pretty useful. but it also made straight 4 lines of 5 impossible. compared to 9X9, box is more useful. but it seems the thing decide no multiple solution is boring to use, maybe i should try to avoid using this level of tricks in the end grid, given digits might be more comfortable.