Mercury Spill
(Published on 25. March 2023, 05:41 by Allagem)
I really wanted to stretch my Sudoku setting skills and try to design some sort of construction puzzle. I don't feel ready to tackle a full Chaos Construction puzzle yet, so instead I played around with the idea of having the solver construct thermometers. This is far from a new idea in variant Sudoku, but there are many different ways to do it, and the approach I wanted to use seems to be quite rare. I wanted to set a thermo puzzle where only the thermo bulbs and lengths are given, and leave it up to the solver to determine how each thermo needs to grow. Disallowing diagonal segments in the thermos and crazier things like branching thermos or overlapping thermos makes both the design and solution path much easier, so I had those rules in place from the very beginning. This has been my most difficult puzzle to design so far, and while it may not be the best construction Sudoku in existence, I still think the end result is quite a fun little challenge. I am proud to present my first construction-themed puzzle, Mercury Spill! I hope you enjoy it :)
Normal Sudoku rules apply.
Hidden Thermometers: Circles mark the bulbs of hidden thermometers in the grid. The small clue in the corner of each bulb cell gives the length of the thermometer, including the bulb. Thermometers do not branch, overlap, or contain diagonal segments. Digits on a thermometer increase from bulb to tip.
Solution code: Row 2 followed by column 7 (18 digits, no spaces)
Comments
on 18. April 2023, 06:08 by mathpesto
Super smooth and enjoyable :)
on 30. March 2023, 15:09 by Knickolas
Brilliant puzzle! Incredibly fun to solve :)
on 28. March 2023, 14:24 by ArnulfKoch
Wow, what a great puzzle. At first I looked for arrows, but didn't manage to construct an arrow of length 8. Then I read the rules again and it was much easier with thermometers ;-) From then on, it had such a smooth solving path like hardly any other Sudoku. Therefore I rated it "easy", because I had many 2** Sudokus where I need much longer to get started and where I get stuck in between. Not so with your puzzle.
on 27. March 2023, 22:00 by Piatato
Fun puzzle! Not all that easy to me, I must say.
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I really appreciate this comment. This is equally valuable feedback as well! People experience puzzles differently and I think what I've learned here is puzzles with construction elements have extra moving parts that can lead to drastically different solves. I think I'm overall quite pleased with the varying perception of this puzzle's difficulty. It sounds like most people enjoyed it regardless and that's the part that matters most to me! Thanks for the solve :)
on 27. March 2023, 13:14 by Niverio
Lovely puzzle! Even the 3 star rating is baffling to me as the puzzle took me less than 10 minutes, but it didn't take anything away from the pure fun of it! Thank you for setting!
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Wow, LESS than 10 minutes?! Now that is fast! It’s my first construction puzzle and I wasn’t sure how to estimate difficulty on something like this. Sounds like I need to raise my expectations of my solvers’ skills. Good to know…
Glad you still enjoyed it :)
on 27. March 2023, 09:01 by Kabuki73
Great puzzle, big fun to solve it!
on 26. March 2023, 16:55 by Nylimb
Very nice! A perfect before-breakfast puzzle.
on 26. March 2023, 15:56 by KNT
Lovely puzzle. But I have to agree with @henrypijames.. the 4 star difficulty rating on this is indeed very puzzling.
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Thanks for the solve and the compliment!
I thought this puzzle was maybe a 3.5 star difficulty, so I rounded up to 4 just in case. I don't mind it lowering to 3 stars if that's what people think it should be. It's difficult to judge the difficulty of construction related puzzles. :)
on 26. March 2023, 15:07 by henrypijames
I'm puzzle by the difficulty rating - for me it's only 1½.
on 26. March 2023, 14:10 by avishai
Thank you so much for this! Everything unfolded so nicely and logically - really beautiful puzzle!
on 26. March 2023, 07:41 by spatzle
this was so satisfying to solve, it's also not too difficult. thanks for the great puzzle!
on 25. March 2023, 19:44 by Al Fresco
Silky smooth :)
on 25. March 2023, 18:27 by Snookerfan
Very nice! I can remember solving a build your own thermometer puzzle a few months ago that was absolutely evil, so it was nice to try this friendly one. Nice logic and a smooth solvepath all the way through. Thank you
on 25. March 2023, 16:45 by MicroStudy
mfw you tested the earlier way different version of this and get 2 bangers for the price of 1
on 25. March 2023, 14:04 by Bankey
Fun puzzle. Thanks, @ Allagem :)
on 25. March 2023, 13:50 by slowbiex
Amazing puzzle!
Thanks for setting.
(not sure i needed the 2 digit thermo at r3c7)
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Thanks for the solve! I responded to you in a hidden comment.
on 25. March 2023, 12:21 by Myxo
Lovely!
on 25. March 2023, 07:26 by Elliott810
Absolutely brilliant puzzle! Take a bow and thanks:)
on 25. March 2023, 06:38 by Playmaker6174
Nice and fun puzzle! Some of the clues took a while to wrap my head around and think about the available options but all clicked well together for me :)
