Squares with Chaotic Circles
(Published on 18. January 2024, 09:07 by thoughtbyte)
Chaos construction: divide the grid into regions of nine orthogonally connected cells. Each row, column, and region must contain the digits 1 to 9 once each.
X-sums: clues outside the grid - to be filled in the circles and square - are the sum of the first X cells in the corresponding row/column, where X is the digit in the cell nearest to the clue. The first X cells are in the same region; the X+1th cell is in a different region.
Circles: circled digits indicate exactly how many circles contain that digit. Outside circles may contain 2-digit numbers. For example if there is a circle with the number 12 in it, that indicates that there is one circle containing a 1 and two circles containing 2s. Each digit is considered separately.
Even: the cell with the grey square contains an even number.
Penpa+: http://tinyurl.com/2xaakxkk
SudokuPad: https://beta.sudokupad.app/npurj1cqvb
Solution code: Row 8, column 8.
Comments
on 11. May 2024, 03:15 by ONeill
Tricky and clever, thanks!
on 19. April 2024, 13:24 by Bankey
@ thoughtbyte, one clarification, please. Suppose an outside circle contains the number 33. If we literally apply the rule as given (viz. "Circled digits indicate exactly how many circles contain that digit"), it would mean that 2 other circles should contain the digit 3 (because the outside circle containing 33 is only one circle). Is that the correct interpretation, or would it mean that since that circle already contains two 3s, hence the digit 3 can only appear once more in all the remaining circles put together ? Thanks.
on 9. February 2024, 01:33 by cair
Brilliant puzzle from start to finish. I admittedly got quite tripped up (even with the many warnings to pay attention to the rules!) and had to step away, but it was nagging at me. I came back to it a week later to re-read and I immediately realized how silly I was being.
on 6. February 2024, 19:11 by Gnosis66
Brilliant. Very inventive use of the circle rule.
on 28. January 2024, 02:54 by MxTery
Extremely enjoyable! Part way through I thought I had done something wrong, and I had to reread the rules more carefully.
on 27. January 2024, 23:11 by shteev
Lots of great stuff in this puzzle! I don't really like *the thing* that it does during the solve (if you've solved it, I bet you know what the thing is!), and nearly dropped my rating down from 5 stars, but decided not to.
on 24. January 2024, 23:16 by PrimeWeasel
Pretty cool! Thanks for the puzzle, had a good time (even with that one circle being a bit odd :))
on 23. January 2024, 19:43 by cam
This is the best puzzle I've ever seen.
on 20. January 2024, 12:03 by Hadley
In your example "if there is a circle with the number 12, that means there is one circle that contains a 1 and two circles that contain 2s. Each digit is considered separately"
Would a circle with the number 12 count as the 1 circle containing a 1 (i.e., there are no more circled 1s)? Thanks in advance!
-- Hi, yes that is correct.
on 20. January 2024, 07:28 by sanabas
30 minutes in and thought I'd done it logically, only to discover I had 3 digits left to put in circles, and 4 circles to put them in.
on 20. January 2024, 02:13 by Mutx
Felt a sense of shivering when I discovered the tricky part. One of the best puzzles I've ever done! Thank you for the great work :)
on 19. January 2024, 20:01 by marty_sears
this looks amazing, can't wait to try it!
on 19. January 2024, 13:53 by marcmees
Very creative use of the circle rule. Absolutely top. Thanks.
-- Thank you! Your clarification question on my last puzzle inspired the idea for using two digit numbers in outside circles! I'm glad it worked out.
me too
on 19. January 2024, 03:26 by Mutx
Just for clarification, does the grey square cell necessarily contain a single-digit number?
-- Hi, nope it contains any even number.
on 18. January 2024, 23:06 by Myxo
Wow, what a brilliant construction :)
-- Thank you! I was able to catch some of your solve on discord, it was a joy to watch. Great solve.
on 18. January 2024, 21:27 by samuel1997
This is definitely a GAS puzzle - Genuinely Absurd Sudoku.
-- Haha! Thank you, I think. Absurd in a mostly good way I hope!
-- Of course in a good way! Should I use amazing instead though?
-- Thanks. No I was just kidding, I like the absurd!
on 18. January 2024, 18:25 by KNT
awesome puzzle! But - solvers should make sure they read the rules VERY carefully as they progress into the solve.
-- Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it despite not being a huge fan of this circle rule.
on 18. January 2024, 14:59 by Jesper
Fantastic puzzle, really cool.
-- Thank you! I look forward to tackling your circle sum CC now that this is done.
