Chaotic Party Pack
(Published on 2. January 2026, 05:18 by Kafkapharnaum)
Unlike the usual outside 2x3 to fill in the digits missing per box or region, you will find for those a left-side strip to enter the missing digit per region, where each cell is aligned with the zero of that region. This strip needs to be empty for the solution check to trigger, but you might find it useful for the solve and/or the solution code.
CHAOS CONSTRUCTION
– For each grid, divide the grid into 6 regions, each made of 6 orthogonally connected cells. The regions and the grid as a whole must follow the Doppelganger rules as described below.
[Duck Soup only]
– The digit in the top left cell of a region (ie, its leftmost cell in its highest row) is its region number. All region numbers must be different, and together they must form a set of the digits 1 to 6.
DOPPELGANGER
– Every row, column, and region contains the digit 0 always, as well as five out of the six digits from 1 to 6 (ie, it's missing one digit that is not 0).
– No two rows, no two columns, and no two regions may be missing the same digit.
– For each 0 in the grid, the digits missing in its row, its column, and its box must be three different digits, yet zeros always have a null value (ie, zero).
RENBANS & GERMAN WHISPERS
– Each purple line must contain a series of consecutive, non-repeating digits, which can appear in any order.
– Adjacent digits along a green line must differ by at least 5.
[Duck Soup and Sawtooth only]
– Regardless of the type of line, the two ends of each line must belong to the same region.
[Travellers only]
– The digit in a dot is exactly 1 less than the number of different regions that its Renban line travels through. No two dots may contain the same digit.
Solution code: The digits in the left-side strip of all three puzzles, each from top to bottom – first, Duck Soup, then Sawtooth, and then Travellers
Comments
on 5. January 2026, 17:59 by War
For the solution code I drew in the left column based on the regions that appear first, not the regions that own the zero in that row. Took me a minute to figure out my mistake, but the puzzles are great and a good learning opportunity for doppelganger.
Great fun!
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That was my first instinct, to have it work by order of region apparition, and yet for some reason I ended up thinking that this would cause more confusion than this option here -- I guess it's also all good learning experience!
Glad to hear that it didn't affect your enjoyment of the pack though, and that you had fun with it -- many thanks for the feedback and kind words! :D
on 4. January 2026, 12:55 by marcmees
Q: the left-side strip = C1 I suppose?
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If we count 8 columns, then yes -- it is the disconnected column on the left of the main grid, where each cell has four bold edges. Each digit in this strip is aligned horizontally with the zero belonging to the region that this digit is missing from.
Thank you for trying the pack!
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Sorry for that question, but I print the puzzle to solve it. Hence I did not get the layout one sees when clicking on one of the images. Thanks for replying.
Nevertheless, I got you 4 red stars and 100% for beauty. :-) Thanks
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Ah, I always forget about paper solvers, I'm so sorry!... I saw that all the new setters of such puzzles post the entire setup as images, even when there are no clues in the tracking cells, so I should start doing the same -- the variant is evolving haha. And many thanks for the feedback, I'm thrilled you enjoyed the pack like that!
on 4. January 2026, 02:56 by bodemeister
Very nice set of puzzles! I really like how each of the puzzles bring out vastly different interactions while having similar rulesets. And each one was a lot of fun.
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And there's another collab'er that I'll have to get back to soon! :D Thanks a lot for the kind words, much appreciated -- glad you had fun with that Party Pack, and let's hope it draws some people to your trilogy and gets that last one its official rating!
on 3. January 2026, 20:25 by wullemuus
Happy New Year!
In fact not so thorny creations as Bode's but far away from being harmless ... !
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Haha, yeah, I guess I was just looking for an excuse to get more people to play Bode's 6x6 (and from there, the 9x9), but I'm glad to hear that they still - apparently - showed that they have some bite!
Thanks for playing, and Happy New Year to you as well!
on 3. January 2026, 00:35 by SennyK
I really loved it! I had wonderful time solving all of those puzzles. Thank you very much for setting them gems :-)
Btw, I found Sawtooth way harder than Travellers.
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Sawtooth definitely isn't easy, so that might just be a toss between the last two as to which is harder. My rationale was that the Region Number would make the first one easier by default, and then 'Sawtooth' easier than 'travellers' by virtue of it being so similar to the first one, but hey, in the end I'm just glad that any of these are putting up a fight, as they were meant to be tough haha
Happy to hear you enjoyed -- thanks a lot for the feedback and kind words, and on to our collab now! ;-)
on 2. January 2026, 22:29 by dzamie
Each one is probably a 3*, but altogether this is definitely harder. Cool to see this works!
It did take a bit of effort to figure out how to read the solution code instructions.
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It's a good sign for the ruleset if these puzzles are seen as 3/5, as not too long ago puzzles way easier where rated 4/5, which would have made these a 5/5 just like bode's 6x6! Still though, I wouldn't be surprised if people still relatively new, let alone completely new to this ruleset found these quite tough, so well done to you!
I understand about the solution code, but this seemed like the best way to have a solution code that would work equally well for all three puzzles, without having to ad specifics for each... In any case, I'm really appreciative of anybody who goes through this entire pack, so thanks a lot!
on 2. January 2026, 19:58 by zeniko
That‘s a tricky puzzle pack. Each of these could just as well be its own with a fresh idea in each of them. Thanks for sharing.
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And thank you for playing them and for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the lot! I debated with myself as to if I'd post them separately, and especially the 'Travellers' one, which I think is both the hardest and the most original of the three, but in the end I figured that the New Year was too good an occasion to have a Party Pack! :D
on 2. January 2026, 10:44 by Piatato
Great fun! Creative little gems :)
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Thrilled to see you break the ice and having fun with this one Piatato! Thanks for the kind words, and Happy Nw Year! :D
