Cover Up (Tapa Sudoku)
(Published on 3. April 2025, 06:00 by tallcat)
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Tapa: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 is entirely shaded. Circled cells cannot be shaded and contain a digit indicating the length of the one (and only) connected group of shaded cells in its up to 8 surrounding cells. If adjacent cells are either both shaded or both unshaded they may not contain consecutive digits.
Shaded sums: Clues outside the grid indicate the sum of digits in shaded cells in its row or column.
Can be played online at f-puzzles or Sudokupad (answer check)
Solution code: The shaded cells in row 6 (left to right) and column 5 (top to bottom)
Comments
on 15. June 2025, 02:31 by Malrog
Great fun solve, lots to enjoy here.
on 4. April 2025, 10:58 by mse326
I just finished. Loved the puzzle. You may want to update the rules text on Sudokupad. IDK about most people but I tend to just open the puzzle and read the rules in there. And it doesn't have the "one (and only)" text regarding connected cells around circles. That threw me for quite a bit. I checked here after about 30 minutes because talking about connected cells did sound a bit strange so I wanted to make sure and only then did I see the difference.
on 4. April 2025, 02:24 by Silverscree
This was a lot of fun!
I had the same difficulty with the wording of (single), so I would recommend a wording change to make it clearer! Nonetheless, once I started using that logic the puzzle was very smooth.
on 4. April 2025, 02:03 by twototenth
Tremendous work, probably my favorite puzzle in quite a while.
on 4. April 2025, 01:30 by CrypticCoyote
Face melting fantastic
on 3. April 2025, 23:45 by awwkaw
This was beautiful 8-)
In the beginning, I thought it would be much easier, but it really fooled me.
I particularly liked the "anti white kropki dot" rule. Such interesting logic.
on 3. April 2025, 21:45 by marcmees
very nice. thanks
on 3. April 2025, 17:09 by Franjo
Wonderful puzzle! Thank you very much for creating and sharing this masterpiece.
on 3. April 2025, 16:57 by mihel111
A very pleasant solve path. Very well done.
on 3. April 2025, 11:32 by Titus Adduxas
I really liked the logic of the rule set, the single set of connected cells in particular. That helped me get started, but although it took me well over 2 hours I always felt I was going to be successful. How on earth you setters can come up with these things is well beyond me but I’m so glad you do! Excellent puzzle.
on 3. April 2025, 09:48 by Snookerfan
Stunning puzzle! Great ruleset. Some really beautiful steps in the solvepath. Thank you
