Stranger in a Strange Land
(Published on 24. February 2025, 10:58 by Wuschel)
- Normal Sudoku rules: Place the digits 1-9 in each row, column and box, without repeats.
- Yin Yang: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells are orthogonally connected, and all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected. No 2x2 area is fully shaded or fully unshaded. The value of a shaded cell is one greater than its digit, the value of an unshaded cell is one less than its digit.
- Region Sum lines: Box borders split blue lines into segments, the sum of the values on a segment is the same for each segment. Different lines may have different totals.
- Kropki pairs: On a black dot one value is double the other. On a white dot values differ by 1. Not all dots are necessarily given.
I also created a version with dynamic fog to guide through the solve.
Solution code: Shaded cells in column 5, followed by unshaded cells in row 5
Comments
on 28. February 2025, 11:05 by DonQuichopp
I thought with the dynamic fog it's more like a 3 star. The interaction between the different rules is mindbending ;-) it took me a lot of writing down to see the possibilities, but I feel I don't deserve the solve of a 4 star puzzle, hahaha.
Took me about 4 hours my average time for 3 stars.
Thank you for the puzzle!
on 28. February 2025, 00:19 by rubencubed
very nice flow, and nice brain wrinkles. I got a little bogged down in all the possibilities for the middle line, but otherwise quite enjoyed it!
on 27. February 2025, 00:52 by Serkles
My first time solving a Cracking the Cryptic Puzzle! Loved it.
on 26. February 2025, 19:54 by Voidslime
Very unique and rewarding! mentally tracking possibilities was hard but never overwhelming.
on 26. February 2025, 16:32 by oskode
Incredible!
on 25. February 2025, 20:58 by madhupt
Very smooth and enjoyable!
on 25. February 2025, 12:28 by gfoot
Well set, a nice blend between rules, and while not too difficult overall, the effect on kropki dots was particularly challenging for me! I stuck to the non-fog version.
on 25. February 2025, 11:13 by 9Rookienumbers
I went back and forth between the two versions. It was brutal, confusing, and I kept making mistakes until the very end: my brain was so fried it took me 4 attempts to punch in the right solution code. Loved it.
on 24. February 2025, 21:58 by softie
I really enjoyed going back and solving the puzzle again with the fog! It was really interesting to see how my first solve path had depended on combining some clues and Sudoku logic that were not available with the fog present.
on 24. February 2025, 18:36 by henrypijames
The title alone is triggering PTSD in me - probably anyone who's gone through Friends in Unknown Lands. But at least this isn't a CC.
on 24. February 2025, 16:12 by wuc
Did the no fog version. Awesome ruleset. Lots of math. Loved it thx.
on 24. February 2025, 15:53 by Snookerfan
Great and very fun puzzle, although the ruleset made the scanning quite hard. Thank you!
