On a rainy day
(Published on 3. April 2024, 14:49 by egubachu)
Backstory
I recently started to create sudoku puzzles, and of course I was very excited with my new endeavor. So I shared my first puzzle Demystification with my girlfriend, who was very excited about it too. I had to give her a little bit of help with the break-in, but then she managed to solve it. But my next two puzzles Crossroads and Arrows and cages were a bit too difficult for her, so she asked me if I could create a sudoku just for her.
She has not done much puzzling before, so I wanted to create an entry-level for her that could introduce her to the poetic beauty of variant sudoku. So I tried to come up with a basic yet somewhat creative puzzle. I might not have completely succeeded in making it very easy, because I wanted to give the puzzle a nice break-in.
I hope you will enjoy this sudoku!
The puzzle
Rules
Normal sudoku rules apply: Place the digits 1 to 9 once each in every row, column, and box. Digits along a thermometer must increase from bulb to end.
Every digit appears exactly eight times on a thermometer and has exactly one occurrence that is not on a thermometer. The grid contains thermometers with only a bulb, which are shown as large grey circles.
Solve online
Solution code: Row 5
Comments
on 28. August 2024, 19:55 by PinkNickels
Excellent setting!
on 2. May 2024, 22:42 by misha
Wonderful and approachable puzzle, 2/5 seems appropriate. Very smooth to solve.
on 10. April 2024, 13:07 by Snaques
This was a very fun puzzle to do and not too hard when you saw how to break in.
That being said, I can definitely understand people struggling to get started if you are new to the full rule set, so 2* seems appropriate.
on 6. April 2024, 14:00 by rhodri
Very nice, absorbing stuff. No deadly pattern.
on 5. April 2024, 00:54 by anyeyeball
Very nice puzzle, smooth solve, and no deadly patterns. As you say, there are 9 non-thermo cells with each digit appearing exactly once.
on 4. April 2024, 20:45 by briansometimes
This was great fun but I also had a deadly pattern towards the end (in column 7-8).
Response by Egubachu: Hm... that is interesting. It is definitely possible to avoid deadly patterns in this puzzle. One thing to keep in mind is that digits appear only once (and exactly once) on a non-thermo square. Without this condition the puzzle would indeed be broken.
on 4. April 2024, 17:37 by misha
Wonderful and approachable puzzle, 2/5 seems appropriate. Very smooth to solve.
on 3. April 2024, 23:11 by NRB
What a beautiful gift to your girlfriend… I thoroughly enjoyed this.
on 3. April 2024, 18:50 by egubachu
Adding a difficulty star. I agree with Ye Nay Myo Han that the puzzle is not actually so trivial.
on 3. April 2024, 17:59 by Ye Nay Myo Han
This is definitely NOT a beginner-level sudoku and I think I find a deadly pattern at column 5 and 6 at the end of the solve.
