Mad Marty's Moneymaker
(Published on 8. February 2024, 20:44 by heliopolix )
This puzzle was uses the excellent constraint invented in Lake’s puzzle Ace is high. It also uses the delightful difference lines by the masterful Marty Sears, as seen in Different Differences. I hope you enjoy it!
Tracking the differences along the long lines can be tricky. I personally used centermarks for candidates and cornermarks for differences on those lines. There is also a solving technique for symmetrical puzzles which involves selecting one of the potential states and ignoring the given asymmetry until the end. I have no objection to this puzzle being solved that way, though the puzzle can be definitely solved without using it.
Rules:
- Sudoku: Place the digits 1-9 once each in every row, column, and 3x3 box.
- Aces High?: The digit 1 counts as either value 1 or value 10 for each dot and line segment in the grid. Any digit 1 can simultaneously have the value of 1 and 10 for different dots or line segments.
- Different Differences: Every pair of adjacent digits on a peach line must differ by a different amount. If two digits are joined by more than one line segment, each segment must have a different difference.
- For example, if there's a 3 next to a 5 on the line, there can't be a 7 next to a 9 anywhere on the same line. However, if allowed by other rules, a 1 could be next to two 4's, counting as a 1 for one and a 10 for the other.
- Kropki Pairs: Digits separated by a black dot must be in a 2:1 ratio. Not all black dots are necessarily given.
Streamers have permission to use this puzzle.
Solution code: Row 9
Comments
on 11. February 2024, 13:10 by marty_sears
Thanks so much for this Heliopolix... was so much fun helping to solve this on stream. It was a real challenge and I'm not sure if I would have managed it on my own, but everything was fair. Particularly liked THAT sneaky moment, you know the one.
Lovely use of Different Difference lines
on 10. February 2024, 22:22 by ViKingPrime
Wow! You did make Marty mad.
on 9. February 2024, 16:49 by sanabas
Fantastic puzzle, though I missed an in hindsight obvious deduction that added at least 1 star to the difficulty.
on 8. February 2024, 21:25 by Fool on Hill
A lovey construction with intricate logic. Bookkeeping is somewhat essential - I resorted to a separate piece of paper to avoid cluttering the grid. The symmetry and disambiguation are very nicely achieved.
on 8. February 2024, 21:02 by blackjackfitz
I absolutely loved this puzzle, it messed with my brain in all of the right ways.
You'll want to be meticulous with how you pencilmark this. I used the line tool to color the lines different colors then used some spare cells in Box 3 to track what differences I had used for each of the newly colored lines.
A beautiful grid with a well telegraphed break-in and interesting logic, what more could you ask for?
