Bad Ikea Instructions
(Published on 18. October 2024, 18:00 by DubiousMobius)
Tinkering around with Region Kropki lines, I was pleased with how this one came together. Big thanks to everyone who helped with testing, rule phrasing, and puzzle formatting!
Rules:
Linked Grids: For each 4x4 grid, place 4 of the digits from 1-9 in each row, column, and box. Different grids may use different digits, and all 9 digits will appear in at least one grid.
Region Kropki Lines: Region borders divide lines into segments. Along a black line, the sum of each segment will have a 1:2 ratio with its neighboring sum. Along a white line, the sum of each segment will be consecutive with its neighboring sum.
Click the puzzle to play
Solution code: Digits that appear in more than one grid, from smallest to largest
Comments
on 21. October 2024, 23:10 by dzamie
11 minutes exactly, thanks to me double- and triple-checking my work while ALSO forgetting that multiple digits means I'm not limited to my usual set of 1:2 ratio digits.
Very fun! And a clever solution code, too.
on 20. October 2024, 16:04 by WildEnte
Very interesting and very nice indeed! Given Gene The Supreme's comment of having required only 8:47min with being slow, I must have overlooked some neat solve path halfway, as I have spent quite some time to brute force rule out a couple of candidates.
I'm happy that I persevered, because at the finish line there was another nice deduction built in.
---
DubiousMobius: So glad you enjoyed the puzzle! For what it's worth, 8:47 sounds like a pretty fast time to me.
There's definitely a midpoint that can feel a little brute force-y. Spoilers below for a couple of things that I found helpful.
The big easy to miss one is that the black line along the top of grid 2 means those 3 digits must sum to a multiple of 3, which eliminates a bunch of otherwise plausible scenarios. I also found it useful to note that r3c2 and r3c3 in that grid are consecutive, which means that at least 1 of them is odd. Even with all that, there's some amount of scutwork... Oh well.
Regardless, thanks for the solve and the kind words! :)
on 20. October 2024, 14:35 by Gene The Supreme
8:47, though a lot of that was me being a doofus. Nice puzzle, and I love the line mechanic!
on 19. October 2024, 10:39 by juggler
What a lovely puzzle!
on 19. October 2024, 10:02 by bboom
Very fun! I'm normally not a big fan of linked grids but this one flows really nicely.
on 19. October 2024, 02:32 by Tinnifer
Lovely approachable puzzle with a very cool and original ruleset. Thank you!
