The Moving Finger (Numbered Regions Chaos Construction)
(Published on 27. February 2025, 03:00 by tallcat)
Chaos construction: Place the digits 1 to 9 once each in every row, column, and region. Regions are orthogonally connected and must be located by the solver.
Region numbers: The digit in the top-left cell of a region (the leftmost cell in its highest row) is its region number. All region numbers are different.
Pointing Arrows: If a cell with the digit X in a region with the number N contains an arrow, then the cell X steps away in the indicated direction belongs to the region numbered N+1. Not all possible arrows are given.
Can be played online at Penpa (no answer check) or Sudokupad (answer check)
Solution code: Row 6 (left to right) with '-' to represent region borders
Comments
on 22. August 2025, 05:28 by Agent
Very clever!
on 5. June 2025, 05:19 by rundmc214
This was such an amazing puzzle, from break in until the end. I absolutely adored Jesper's original puzzle, but I felt this one was much more consistent in difficulty and I loved the logical flow this had much more. Probably my favorite puzzle I've solved so far!
on 9. May 2025, 16:25 by glum_hippo
Drop dead fabulous puzzle! I found it on zetamath's stream and somehow snoozed when it was originally released. Splendoriferous cat!
on 13. April 2025, 11:22 by theaaronbomb
This was my first 5-star solve, and I couldn't have chosen a better one to attempt! this puzzle has opened up a whole new world of joy for me. Thank you tallcat!
on 7. April 2025, 08:29 by Erin
WOW such a nice puzzle!!
on 6. April 2025, 08:23 by rubencubed
such fun! was engaging from start to finish :D
on 5. April 2025, 22:36 by Fool on Hill
Wonderful puzzle with lovely logic about the regions.
on 5. April 2025, 20:15 by wooferzfg
Fantastic, thank you
on 5. April 2025, 03:31 by KNT
great!!!
on 30. March 2025, 20:24 by heliosfant
Several times I thought "no way this can be correct", but it turned out to be correct :)
And I do not know if it was intentional or not, but I loved where the 9 and 1 region numbers ended. The beginning and the end.
on 25. March 2025, 03:31 by BloodbuzzCorio
Brilliant puzzle tallcat!
on 5. March 2025, 10:06 by MagnusJosefsson
Amazing puzzle! Incredibly fun and rewarding. The finishing irregular sudoku is very smooth as well.
on 1. March 2025, 22:25 by askaksaksask
Wow, this logic is really fresh, in total agreement with the comments below. I quite enjoyed the "pressure" on sorting top-left digits, and the wonderful region building disarray that follows. Quite fun. Thank you so much!
on 1. March 2025, 05:05 by twototenth
Excellent puzzle - very much worth the headache.
on 1. March 2025, 01:06 by SirWoezel
One of the best puzzles I have ever solved. Can’t understand how this ‘only’ has 93% right now.
on 28. February 2025, 05:24 by Piatato
Awesome puzzle, thanks!
on 27. February 2025, 19:51 by Franjo
Incredible setting with a beautiful break-in! Thank you so much for creating and sharing this masterpiece, with which I could celebrate my 100th 5*-solution. ;-)
on 27. February 2025, 17:44 by Jesper
Fantastic puzzle! Really enjoyed solving :)
on 27. February 2025, 17:13 by tallcat
Thanks everyone for the positive responses and feedback - it was quite tricky to set this one so i appreciate the warm reception!
on 27. February 2025, 16:56 by SenatorGronk
Fantastic puzzle! Putting the over/under of this being featured on CtC at 1.5 days.
on 27. February 2025, 16:30 by gfoot
Brilliant - this kind of arrows-plus-chaos-construction is one of my favourite puzzle types, and this is a great example of it, thanks for setting it!
on 27. February 2025, 15:57 by marcmees
Thank you. 100% appreciation well deserved.
on 27. February 2025, 15:08 by TripleABattery
Lovely puzzle with beautiful logic throughout, thank you!
on 27. February 2025, 13:31 by Andrewsarchus
Very Nice!
on 27. February 2025, 11:30 by Snookerfan
Very nice puzzle! I love this ruleset. Thank you
on 27. February 2025, 11:19 by Silverscree
This was excellent and maintained its level of toughness right to the end in my solve.
on 27. February 2025, 09:37 by Playmaker6174
Wow, what a fantastic setting with also a rather consistent difficulty throughout!
It took me a lot of time to get my mind around how the opening works but the aha moments just kept coming in such delightful ways, and all of those were crammed into just over 90 minutes solve of mine. Also thank you for making the final irregular part not so insane this time x)
on 27. February 2025, 04:18 by henrypijames
Novel logic, recommend for CtC.
