Fractured
(Published on 13. June 2022, 09:15 by Andrewsarchus)
Rules:
- There are 9 regions hidden within the grid, each containing the digits 1 to 9, once each. Digits cannot repeat in a row or column. Cells that are not part of a region do not contain digits.
- Each region is orthogonally and/or diagonally connected.
- Each has a different number of orthogonally connected pieces.
- Squares indicate the number of orthogonally connected pieces that make up its region. All possible squares have been given.
- Circles indicate the number of empty cells (those which do not belong to any region) in the surrounding 3x3 neighborhood. All possible circles have been given.
- Diamonds between cells indicate an edge between an empty cell and a non-empty cell, where the digit in the non-empty cell is the run-length of empty cells on the other side of the diamond. All possible diamonds have been given.
- Black dots separate cells in different regions which have a 2:1 ratio.
- White dots separate cells in the same region which have consecutive digits.
- Red dots show where additional white/black dots would go if not for the region constraint. (i.e. digits in a 2:1 ratio but in the same region, or consecutive digits, but in different regions).
- All black, white, and red dots have been given.
- Clues outside of the grid are numbered room clues. The digit in the first non-empty cell gives the index (from the indicated edge of the grid) to the cell containing the clue digit, or in the case of a 0, to an empty cell (not necessarily the first).
Example
Play Online:
f-puzzles: Fractured
ctc: Fractured
penpa: Fractured (gray dots instead of red)
Solution code: Row 6 and Column 12 with 0's representing empty cells
(left to right, top to bottom, no spaces)
Comments
on 31. August 2023, 09:08 by CrazyCrypticC
I'm not sure if this is called Fractured because it appears you dropped the grid and it shattered or because you must be cracked to set it or because it will fracture your psyche solving it. This is unbelievable setting. It took FOREVER, but I'm stubborn, so that's not a problem. Nothing about it was particularly hard, but it's such a beast to solve. You just need a LOT of persistence. Thanks for the journey and the exercise for my brain!
on 13. November 2022, 09:45 by PrimeWeasel
YES
on 7. October 2022, 07:04 by prodigis
This was as incredible as everyone says below. Just spent a good 500 minutes plugging away at it over a few days, always something interesting to find and every deduction from a negative constraint felt like a major victory. May have to frame the solution on my wall
on 18. September 2022, 22:45 by Vebby
What a marathon! Interesting logic throughout and amazing to see how it all comes together in the end. Bonkers construction xD
on 21. June 2022, 09:18 by MagnusJosefsson
Many hours of fun! No particularly hard step, but a marathon of negative restrictions and other deductions. I particularly liked the region division near the end.
on 19. June 2022, 04:46 by Koalagator2
Absolutely Amazing
on 18. June 2022, 13:31 by Chilly
Well, it turns out Ne Plus Ultra was a lie after all!
This was an insane but beautiful puzzle, in the same mould - took me maybe about 8 hours on and off - I thought I broke it a couple of times, but actually it wasn't! A wild ride.
on 18. June 2022, 12:41 by Jesper
An awesome puzzle. Solving it is a serious undertaking :) The Penpa link was very useful.
on 17. June 2022, 21:36 by lerroyy
Incredible puzzle! The fact that it stays very hard until the end is really nice. Thanks Andrewsarchus!
on 16. June 2022, 19:51 by Andrewsarchus
added penpa link
on 16. June 2022, 18:33 by henrypijames
After several hours and 80% filled grid, my solve crashed - I don't know where it went wrong, so I'm restarting. One thing that would help me greatly is the ability to pencilmark the outside clues - which Penpa lets you do. So, could you please provide a Penpa link for the puzzle? Normally I'd just do that myself, but with such a complex grid, I fear chances are high I'd make some error copying the grid.
Hi henrypijames, sorry to hear your progress was lost, but glad to help out with the penpa link.
I added it above as requested.
--Andrewsarchus
<<<
Thx, though I did manage to solve it in the CtC app after all. :)
And when I said my solve crashed, I didn't mean my computer or browser crashed - I meant I broke the puzzle late in the game and didn't know how far I needed to backtrack. It turned out to be a stupid counting error, but I did restart from scratch.
on 15. June 2022, 16:03 by polar
Stunning puzzle! I originally inverted the instructions and read a 9 in a square to mean 1 piece (or 9 orthogonally connected cells), but the example you added helped to clear up where I went wrong. It was just as fun on the 2nd pass as well. Thanks for constructing this very enjoyable beast!
on 15. June 2022, 04:10 by KNT
You somehow managed to make a ruleset even harder to keep track of than that of Ne Plus Ultra! An impressive feat.
Joking aside, this puzzle is an absolute nightmare, but in the best possible way.
on 15. June 2022, 02:26 by Bootenks
What an absolute beast to solve. The hardest challenge here is to don't forget a single rule (incl. neg. constraints) and look on the right spots. Sometimes the path is very tight. :D
Beautiful puzzle. Now I must recover. :D
on 14. June 2022, 23:53 by hepcecob
Jesus f****** Christ man, this was absolutely ridiculous!!!! Holy hell, this has got to be one of my favorite puzzles EVER, top 2 minimum. I don't comprehend how this was made, the damn thing was impossible looking all the way through. Took me over 5 hours to solve.
Absolutely amazing.
on 14. June 2022, 19:24 by Andrewsarchus
formatting
on 14. June 2022, 19:23 by Andrewsarchus
added example
on 13. June 2022, 15:14 by Andrewsarchus
minor rules edit
on 13. June 2022, 14:33 by crispy16
Another stunning masterpiece, from a brilliant mind.
