Heyawake Sudoku (Given Regions)
(Published on 28. January 2026, 07:31 by SennyK)
My previous Heyawake Sudoku with Chaos Construction was very hard, so I decided to create an approachable version (estimated difficulty 2.5*) with given regions! :-)
I hope you will enjoy and I would be really grateful for all the comments and ratings.
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Kropki dots: Digits in cells joined by a white dot are consecutive. Digits in cells joined by a black dot are in a 1:2 ratio (i.e., one digit will be double the other). Not all dots are necessarily given.
Heyawake: Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. There cannot be a horizontal or vertical line of unshaded cells that goes through 2 or more region borders.
Circles: Digits in circles cannot repeat and must indicate at least one (but may indicate both) of the following:
- the number of shaded cells in their region
- the number of unshaded cells in all (up to 9) surrounding cells
Shaded cells: Only digits 1, 2, 3 and 4 can appear in shaded cells.
Heyawake Explanation:
You can see on the example above how heyawake works. You can also try to play an example here or a big 9x9 heyawake here before you solve the sudoku. Rules are also explained here.
If you would like to try more challenging Sudoku/Heyawake hybrid, here they are:
- Heyawake Chaos by mellowrobinson
- Heyawake Sudoku by me
★☆☆☆☆: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 12, 15, 17, 23, 26, 27
★★☆☆☆: 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 29, 30
★★★☆☆: 9, 19, 21, 22, 28 Shading/Ying-Yang:
★★☆☆☆: Pretty Odd Shaded Area
★★★☆☆: (+5)-Yang, Negative 8 YY
★★★★☆: Aim High! (YY)
★★★★★: Why-Why? Modifiers:
★★★☆☆: Modified Flat Mates, Neighbourhood Watch Fog of War:
★☆☆☆☆: Erica 12, Erica 17
★★☆☆☆: It's What You Do in the Dark That Puts You in the Light, Find It All, What the Fog?, Erica 20, Erica 29
★★★☆☆: Broken Flashlight in the Dark Pencil Puzzle/Sudoku Hybrid:
★★☆☆☆: Masyu (Short) Sudoku
★★★☆☆: Tetromino Sudoku
★★★★★: Heyawake Sudoku
Various Puzzles:
★☆☆☆☆: Blown Fuses in Electrical Installation, Let Me Introduce Myself, French Wrench, GAS Regional Constraints, Quadsumes
★★☆☆☆: Symmetrical Fan, Night Club, Important Hour on the Clock, What Was the Sum Again?, Disgroup Joints, 10-Arrows, Antiking Dutch Skyscrapers, (Not so) Little Killers, Indexing Sword
★★★☆☆: Cops & Robbers, Positive Symmetry, Doppelgänger Killer 1-25, Region Whisper Line, Christmas Chaos
★★★★☆: Liars. Liars Everywhere., Sandwiched XV Squishmates, Fireworks 2025, (Yin)German Pairrows
Solution code: All digits in shaded cells in normal reading order (left-to-right and top-to-bottom).
Comments
on 3. February 2026, 14:07 by MattYDdraig
The puzzle was fun and very approachable (once re-reading that the circles were a set of unique digits) ~~but the heyawake shading was non-unique. Naturally, the solution code was the last one I tried.~~
SK: Thanks for solving! I am 100% positive Heyawake is unique, did you see the rule regarding runs of unshaded cells and digits in circles indicating number of shaded/unshaded?
MyD: My apologies. I did see the rule but somehow inverted it in my head at the ending so I could shade/unshaded r1c9 either way, which obviously is wrong on my part since it counts the wrong thing.
on 28. January 2026, 21:04 by dzamie
Pretty interesting, although the standard sudoku layout did kind of make the heyawake a little boring.
I think also that the heavy imbalance of how many circles were used for one indicator versus another made it a little difficult to keep both of them in mind, but that's also probably just because this is a new ruleset and so I'm not used to it.
I think a version of this that's irregular sudoku would be cool (I know you already did the CC one, but as you say, providing the regions makes the puzzle much more approachable).
