Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Here is another 11x11 deconstruction sudoku with a single constraint, continuing a serie also including puzzles involving kropki dots, german whispers, position sums, thermos, counting cells in, out of regions and lockout lines.

This puzzle is dedicated to Playmaker, whose BYO Killer puzzle inspired me to incorporate this rule in a deconstruction.

Read the rules carefully, because there's a clarification about the "non-uniqueness" of some cages shaping in the puzzle, which could disturb some solvers. I am confident that this will not spoil the fun of solving the sudoku, which is definitely unique ! Enjoy !

The puzzle :

Play on Penpa

Rules :

- Normal sudoku deconstruction apply : Fill the grid with nine non-overlapping 3x3 square regions, such that each region contains the digits 1-9 once each and no digit repeats in any row or column. Cells outside regions do not contain digits.

- BYO Killer : Every caged cell is used to construct a 'real' killer cage, consisting of a 1-cell wide non-branching orthogonally connected area of cells. The clue indicates the sum of the digits in the cage, or the minimum of that sum. A '?' stands for an unknown digit, to be determined. Digits may not repeat in a cage. The clue is not necessarily in the top-most left-most cell of the cage. Cages do not overlap. The caged cell is not necessarily the first/last cell of the built cage.

Note that with this ruleset, it may happen that the shape of some killer cages is not unique, because:

- some cages may extend to some empty cells outside regions (see the purple lines on the example grid),

- some cages may reach the same digit in 2 different cells,

- some cages may take more cells because only the minimum sum is given.

BUT this will not affect the uniqueness of the deconstructed sudoku.

Example puzzle :

Here is a fun little example puzzle (Penpa, Sudokupad) to demonstrate the rules with 2x2 regions and digits from 1-4.

And in case anyone is wondering where the title came from, here is a little hint : "Pay me, Karl !"