Circle City
(Published on 28. January 2025, 18:44 by jwsinclair)
Circle City, by James Sinclair
Normal sudoku rules apply within the 9x9 grid (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each).
Cells outside the grid contain skyscraper clues, which indicate the number of digits visible in that direction (where higher digits block the view of lower digits).
A digit inside a white circle must appear in at least one of the four cells surrounding that circle.
Digits in cells separated by a (smaller) white dot are consecutive.
Note: any digits entered outside the grid are ignored for solution-checking purposes.
SudokuPad
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Solution code: row five, including both skyscraper clues, from left to right (11 digits)
Comments
on 2. February 2025, 08:03 by puzzlepandit
Hard Initially but turned into smooth flow after certain point. A must try I will say.
on 30. January 2025, 22:10 by VitP
some comments here rate this puzzle as quite hard. i have found, over a long period of time, that KNOWING this is a james sinclair puzzle brings the difficulty down (3 is fair). the point is, there is ALWAYS a path that even a beginner COULD find. specifically, look at clues that were "useless" just prior to the last thing you deduced. one of them is now useful. took me a looong time, but at no time was i "stuck".
>>> for example, at the start, NONE of the clues are "useful", EXCEPT the 239 circles. but after working on those, NOW many of the other circles become useful. THEN you can return to the 239 circles and improve those. etc.
on 30. January 2025, 18:01 by greyhathero
Maybe I missed something but 4* for me. Beautiful bits of logic once you get your head around it
on 29. January 2025, 16:52 by Snookerfan
Very nice! Beautiful interactions. When you don't spot the next step quickly, it can be quite a long solve. Thank you
on 28. January 2025, 22:24 by konjecture
I'm always a fan of how the skyscraper clues interact with other elements. Maybe I'm biased but it felt like a 3* to me.
The break in is a beautiful bit of logic.
on 28. January 2025, 19:44 by jwsinclair
edit: slight change to the puzzle (realized belatedly that a clue is redundant)
on 28. January 2025, 19:16 by jwsinclair
edit: adjusted difficulty (it may wind up at 3*, but I prefer to round up, so moved it to 4*)
