The Punisher (Thermometer + palindrome + cipher + quadruples sudoku)
(Published on 17. May 2021, 21:39 by Aspartagcus)
Criminal 2: It is The Punisher!
The Punisher: Hi.
Criminal 1 and 2: RUN!
RULES:
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Cipher clues: Each letter corresponds to a digit between 1 and 9. The cells with letters in them have to contain the corresponding digit.
- Quadruples: Circles with letters in them indicate that the digits corresponding to those letters have to appear at least once each in the four cells touching the circle.
- Lines: Every line segment between the center of two cells have to be part of a thermometer and/or a palindrome. You'll have to determine which.
- Thermometers: Each gray circle is the start of a thermometer with at least the length 2. Digits along a thermometer have to increase as they move away from the bulb.
- Palindromes: A palindrome is a line along which the sequence of digits are the same when read either forwards or backwards. Each of the 5 lines can have a maximum of one palindrome. On looped lines, the ends of the palindromes have to be determined. (That is, one of the line segments in each eye can be removed.)
Enjoy!
Link to solve it online (without the dark gray background):
Penpa+
f-puzzles
I am aware that the ruleset is a bit complicated, but there should be some pretty cool logic in there. The puzzle is hard, but shouldn't be quite as challenging as Daredevil and Wheel of Arrows.
Solution code: Column 1 and row 5 in succession
Comments
on 13. April 2024, 03:23 by cmb
awesome puzzle!
complete logical path!
thanks vebby
----
Wow, thanks for giving this oldie a go. :) Glad you liked it!
on 19. November 2021, 14:33 by Vebby
Slight ambiguity in the rules tripped me up when solving this. Here's a clarification for the benefit of future solvers: Each bulb in the long line will be the start of only one thermo (in one direction). Digits may ascend from the bulb in the other direction but those line segments will not be considered to be part of a thermo, and hence will have to be part of a palindrome.
on 5. September 2021, 01:02 by uvo_mod
It would be nice to have a printer-friendly version here, not on an external website.
on 18. August 2021, 22:09 by Aspartagcus
Added "Online solving tool" tag
on 19. May 2021, 22:37 by MagnusJosefsson
Very nice, but also very challenging! For me it was probably somewhat harder than your daredevil puzzle. But I did find a completely logical path, with some interesting and unusual logic. I really liked disambiguating the long line, this was probably my favourite part!
----
Thanks a lot for sticking with it! Puzzles are made to be solved, so it's good to know that at least two people solved it and enjoyed it so far. :)
Good to hear that you stuck with the logical path the whole time. I quite like setting these kinds of puzzles with slightly different rulesets, it often leads to interesting logic once you get your head around it. I'm beginning to really like cryptic clues as well.
Tack igen, och grattis till dina två CtC features, btw! :)
on 19. May 2021, 14:43 by Aspartagcus
Updated rules slightly.
on 19. May 2021, 11:26 by MagnusJosefsson
Looks interesting. One question: "Each line can have a maximum of one palindrome." -- Does the long outline of the face count as one line or three different lines (broken up by the bulbs)?
----
The long line counts as one long line. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask! :)
Thanks for trying it out!
