Pillboxes
(Published on 10. March 2023, 06:56 by Allagem)
I was suddenly struck with the idea to combine killer cages and fortress cells late one night when I couldn't sleep. I got out of bed to write the idea down and named it fortified killer cages and the next day I tested some things out and was thrilled to see how much potential this idea held. The first version of this puzzle existed over a month ago, but I went through dozens of iterations trying to find the best possible layout to showcase the combined constraint because I knew I had stumbled onto something amazing. Some versions had more cages, and some versions had cages with missing sums. In the end, however, I settled on this design that had the most visually appealing layout, the smoothest solve, and the greatest variety of interesting deductions that can result from fortified killer cages. It is with great pleasure that I present my most intriguing puzzle to date, Pillboxes!
Yes, these are all the clues needed for a unique solution :)
Update: This puzzle was featured on Cracking the Cryptic! Watch Mark's solve of the puzzle here!Normal Sudoku rules apply.
Fortified Killer Cages: Digits inside a cage do not repeat and sum to the small clue in the corner of the cage. All cages additionally act as fortresses – each digit inside a cage is greater than its orthogonally adjacent neighbors outside the cage.
Solution code: Row 5 followed by column 9. (18 digits, no spaces)
Comments
on 31. July 2023, 12:33 by anyeyeball
Excellent puzzle. Looking forward to more of this ruleset.
on 17. July 2023, 05:26 by Allagem
Added a link to CtC solve!
on 28. April 2023, 23:40 by sleeky21
Very nice, fun to get your head round :)
on 19. March 2023, 01:49 by Agent
Very smooth puzzle, it's surprising that it works so well with only these 4 cages.
on 15. March 2023, 06:58 by SudokuHero
What a cool ruleset!
on 13. March 2023, 21:26 by Phistomefel
Very nice puzzle again! Thank you, Allagem!
on 13. March 2023, 20:21 by Nylimb
Lovely! Thanks for taking the time to find such a nice version.
on 12. March 2023, 22:25 by Nordy
Fun puzzle, and beautiful minimalism!
on 12. March 2023, 16:47 by Franjo
What an elegant setting with a really smooth solve path this is! Two stars seem enough, love it! Thank you so much for sharing your work.
on 11. March 2023, 09:27 by Crusader175
Very nice!
on 11. March 2023, 05:30 by wisty
Really cool how this resolves with just a few cages! Nice work. And re: the difficulty, imo its a 2 star puzzle with a 2.5 star break-in :)
on 10. March 2023, 17:52 by jwsinclair
Really nice! And not too difficult. I gave it 3/5, but I won't be surprised at all if it winds up at 2.
on 10. March 2023, 10:52 by Piatato
Smooth and fun solve, thanks!
