Fog of Never 4
(Published on 28. October 2024, 19:16 by Jrosas)
Rules:
Ordinary never 4, fog of war, kropki, little killer and arrow rules.
Explanation of rules:
Never 4: Place the digits 0 to 9 (never 4) in each row, column and 3x3 bold outlined box.
Fog of war: fog covers the grid. Placing a correct digit clears the fog in surrounding cells. No guessing is required.
Kropki: Each white dot separates two digits that differ by 1. Each Black dot separates two digits; one of them is double the other. Not all kropki are necessarily given.
Little killer: a number outside the grid is the sum of all the digits along the indicated diagonal.
Arrows: digits on an arrow sum to the number in the attached circle. “
Credits: thank you to zlotnleo for pointing out a second possible solution. I believe I have fixed it.
And Thank you to Zeekfox for pointing out that no, I did not, in fact, fix it.
Solution code: Row 1 left to right
Comments
on 29. November 2024, 19:44 by Jrosas
Changed rules to “double” a la Simon Anthony
on 16. November 2024, 03:32 by ostio456
I really enjoyed this puzzle, and as it seems with many people, I got stuck before realising a 4 pencil mark snuck in!
on 5. November 2024, 11:54 by Rollo
Ganz große Klasse!
on 30. October 2024, 21:35 by nearestneighbour
What's the point of the never 4 rule other than messing with the solver's head? It's basically a trick question transformed into a rule.
The same can be said about any constraint, like chess moves or yin Yang, or negative constraints.
"Never 4" puts interesting limitations on other rules, like eliminating the 4/8 and 2/4 pairs on a black dot and the 3/4 and 4/5 pairs on a white dot. In this puzzle it allowed me to have only one non-fog cell and what I think is a fun break in on the little killer. I've set 7 puzzles with "Never 4" all with different combinations of additional constraints and have gotten very positive comments until this one. I'm disappointed to hear you did not enjoy it. I'm proud of this puzzle for the way the breaking fog reveals one clue at a time and requires logical deductions at every step. My other fog puzzle was not that way.
This is my 16th puzzle published on Logic Masters. Apart from the 2 that have been featured on the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel and have thousands of solves, this is more popular than all the others combined. Over 200 people have solved it and input the solution code on LM. Another 450 have solved it according without inputting the code, according to the CTC app. I'm thinking I'm pleasing most people with this one.
on 29. October 2024, 23:05 by dzamie
I swear, the number of times I said to myself, "hmm, this doesn't look solvable, what am I missing?" only to notice a handful of "4" pencilmarks...
My favorite puzzles to solve have simple rules easy to remember, but with a twist. And it’s remembering the twist that is essential. I set this one with that goal. I hope you enjoyed the puzzle.
on 29. October 2024, 09:25 by VitP
spoiler alert:
nevermore ! nevermore !
on 29. October 2024, 02:04 by GorgeousNicko
Quoth the Raven “Never four?”
Exactly. I came up with the rule when constructing “Poet Himself,” which began as an anagram tribute to Phistomefel and morphed into an Edgar Allen Poe themed puzzle.
That figgers. I'm behind the curve ... not for the first time :D
Yes but only 10 people have solved that puzzle in the 6 months it’s been on LM. It’s a small curve
on 28. October 2024, 22:08 by faltenin
That was fun! no problem with the solution. My first "no 4"
on 28. October 2024, 20:55 by aerenhart
I kept forgetting the never 4 rule and made this more difficult than it needed to be lol. Thanks!
Thank you! I’ve set several “Never 4” puzzles with different constraints. I enjoy the way never 4 affects the different rules. Poet Himself was the first, which I just updated with Black Cat graphics in time for Halloween. Enjoy!
