Made to be Broken
(Published on 23. January 2023, 20:54 by jwsinclair)
Normal sudoku rules apply, except that exactly one instance of each of the digits 1-9 has been replaced with a 0, and 0 must appear once in each row, column, and box.
0s may have a value of 0 or 10 (but not both simultaneously). In other words, some 0s may have a value of 0, some may have a value of 10, and some may have a value that remains ambiguous, but the value of any specific 0 must be the same for the purposes of all clues it interacts with.
Along green lines, values in adjacent cells must differ by at least 5.
Values in cells separated by a white dot are consecutive.
Values in cells separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio.
SudokuPad
If you or someone you know might enjoy a weekly set of puzzles that are pretty approachable by LMD standards (much more so than this one!), check out Artisanal Sudoku. Primarily killer sudokus, often in combination with other rulesets.
Solution code: row 2 (with 0 in place of the missing digit), followed by the digit missing from each box in order from box 1-9 (18 characters in all)
Comments
on 1. June 2024, 20:10 by dendrobium
Cool puzzle and incredibly difficult! Though I inadvertently made things more confusing for myself by trying to enter the 0s directly on the grid; things got clearer when I just stuck with entering 1-9 and colouring the cells where the 0s should go.
on 1. February 2023, 04:34 by BHUNTER47
The break in was lovely as well as the careful interaction of the constraints with the rules.
on 26. January 2023, 01:45 by Myxo
Amazing and quite brutal puzzle! Enjoyed that a lot.
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Thanks so much, glad you liked it!
on 24. January 2023, 20:26 by Lizzy01
Very nice! I didn't break the puzzle at all, but that might be because I was very carefully checking all of my logic after seeing the comments! It did take me over 95 minutes. Because I was so slowly and deliberately double-checking each and every theoretical option, I actualy did feel like there where way too many options sometimes (like in most very difficult puzzles), but I can certainly imagine how easy it would be to miss important possibilities if you'd be doing it just a bit faster and less thoroughly! All in all, I did very much enjoy it though!
Also, your comment about it not being solved for a while is so recognisable. I've often had that on puzzles with slightly weird rulesets. I (relatively) recently published this puzzle:
https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=000BWX
It's also a twist on modifier cells (but other than that very different from this one, and I think less hard) and it's still got only 10 solves. I'd be very appreciative if anyone reading this could spare the time to try it and help it get a rating. Another minor similarity: I had comments about the solution code being unclear and overcomplicated too, even though it wasn't that complicated in my opinion. I did change it though, don't worry :)
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Thanks! I'm trying yours now and it's definitely interesting, but I'm having trouble making much progress. Might have to set it aside for a bit and try again tomorrow, but thanks for letting me know about it!
on 24. January 2023, 10:07 by ademjaz
An amazing and challenging puzzle! I totally agree with all what @Allagem said, and as I only broke the puzzle twice I feel so proud!
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Somehow missed this comment at first, but, thanks!
on 24. January 2023, 07:42 by Allagem
I thought of a better way to articulate WHY this puzzle felt so different and so fun. In most Sudokus, the difficulty comes from trying to eliminate possibilities, but discovering that different options don't break the puzzle. This puzzle quite often has the opposite problem. Almost everything you try immediately breaks the puzzle. Which sounds like it should make eliminate possibilities until you find the solution easy, but the problem is unless you are VERY careful with your logic, you accidentally eliminate ALL possibilities. So your task feels backwards in this puzzle. Instead of eliminating possibilities, you are desperately trying to look for possibilities to KEEP before you run out of options and have to start over (for the 6th or 7th time!). And that mindset is very rare in Sudoku puzzles and that makes it very enjoyable on this puzzle. Amazing design again, jwsinclair!
on 24. January 2023, 04:10 by jwsinclair
changed solution code description
on 24. January 2023, 03:54 by Allagem
This puzzle reached a level of insanity where I feel the solver is proud not of their completion time, but rather of how few times they broke the puzzle. And seeing as I only broke the puzzle a respectable 7 times, I feel rather triumphant if I do say so myself. :)
I have never seen a more appropriately titled puzzle. This was like a fragile piece of glass that broke at every single deduction. You soon become obsessed not over solving the puzzle, but over NOT breaking it! And I loved every second of it. Ingenious puzzle with some brilliant, out-of-this-world deductions!
PS: you may want to remind people to be sure to replace a digit with 0 in the first 9 digits of the solution code ;) - one final way to break the puzzle at the end!
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Haha, thank you so much! I did think about whether I should be more clear about the solution code, but couldn't find the right wording. But, hopefully, if anyone's confused they'll scroll down and find this comment :-)
2nd edit: went ahead and changed the wording a bit, since you're probably right that it wasn't as clear as it could be
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Honestly, having broken the puzzle again and again until finally finishing the whole thing and gingerly checking everything over as if my breathing itself would cause it to break again... only to have the solution code NOT WORK was just peak comedy. It was just another part of the experience! And I realized quite quickly you DID say to REPLACE the digits with 0 and not simply highlight them in red as I did so the impending sense of doom was quickly replaced by overwhelming satisfaction that the puzzle was, in fact, NOT broken for once!
So no harm done :)
on 23. January 2023, 23:49 by OutOfMyMindBRB
A brilliant and challenging puzzle! Thank you :-)
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Thanks! And congrats on being the first solver, I was starting to worry I'd gotten the solution code wrong or something :)
