Destructive Counting
(Eingestellt am 21. November 2025, 13:12 Uhr von eap314)
I challenged myself to make a variation on a few lesser know rulesets. These authors are amazing, and their puzzles linked below can serve as examples.
Sudoku / Latin Square: Digits do not repeat in rows or columns.
Destruction (
NXTMaster): All GIVEN regions contain at least one repeat digit. Locate 7 orthogonally connected HIDDEN regions that contain the digits 1-7.
A circle counts how many (orthogonally and diagonally) adjacent cells including itself (up to 9) are in both its given and hidden region.
A square counts how many TOTAL cells overlap between its given and hidden region.
Counting (
IcyFruit): A digit in a CIRCLE indicates the TOTAL number of circles and squares that contain that digit. Digits in squares do not necessarily go in circles.
(2 could go in 1 square and 1 circle. 3 could go in 5 squares if it goes in 0 circles)
Click on the image to play

Note to self: This puzzle (and CC in general) was easier for me to work backwards from a solution after placing some important / funny bits
Lösungscode: Row 6 left to right. Use a hyphen (-) to designate hidden region boundaries.
Zuletzt geändert am 4. April 2026, 05:53 Uhr
Gelöst von NXTMaster, tryote, marcmees, SPring, Yaoning, zakkai, LabRat, The Book Wyrm, jkuo7, chenlu
Kommentare
am 2. Dezember 2025, 18:21 Uhr von eap314
Updated setter's note, removed extra given
Zuletzt geändert am 4. April 2026, 06:03 Uhram 1. Dezember 2025, 14:41 Uhr von The Book Wyrm
Brilliant puzzle!
The adjustments to "Destruction" worked really well - the smaller regions make the forced repeat rule much more relevant, and the square clues are a pretty interesting clue type.
Both types of destruction clues worked really well with the counting rules as well, which was very nice.
The puzzle was very smooth with a lot of interesting and well-telegraphed logic.
I have some experience with destruction so it was closer to 3*.
(Also didn't need the extra given)
- - -
eap314:
Thank you! I've been thinking about these rules individually for a while, so I'm glad that they came together so well.
I also agree with your difficulty estimate, but it's a fairly new ruleset.
- - -
The CC setting process will vary a lot depending on the ruleset. They often require finding a solution *for the regions* partway through setting. That way you still have some options, but have the solver to guarantee the irregular doesn't break.
- - -
eap314: [decreased text wall (mostly my own errors), sorry for the ping]