Sunny, with a chance of fog
(Published on 23. March 2025, 01:35 by pdyxs)
What a bright and shiny day - even the renbans have turned yellow! Surely nothing could possibly go wrong...
Rules
To start, you need to know these rules:
- Sudoku: Fill the grid with the digits 1-9, so that each digit occurs exactly once in every row, every column and every 3x3 box.
- Renban Lines: Digits on a line form a set of non-repeating, consecutive digits in any order.
Later, you'll need to know these as well:
- Encroaching fog: The grid is not covered in fog. Placing a correct digit in a cell will summon fog to that cell, and to the 8 surrounding cells. No guessing or erasing of digits is required.
- Kropki: If two cells do not have a grid line between them, their digits are consecutive. If a renban line is hollow between two cells, the digit in one cell is double the other. Not all kropki clues are given.
Notes:
- In this puzzle, constraints are being rendered in non-standard ways.
- The colour tool will not work, and the line tool is strange. Such is the price of summoning fog!
How I made this
I've written a short post about how I made this work. Check it out here.
More Experimental Fog puzzles:
- The grid of forking paths
- Recounting the counting
- A murder most fogged
- Cartography
- Whispers in the mist
- Some Things Fogn
- Recounting the Rooms
For more puzzles, follow me on Bluesky at @pdyxs.bsky.social
Solution code: Row 9, from left to right
Comments
on 21. April 2025, 12:29 by JoBerlin
I was very hesitant to try this puzzle because I imagined with the encroaching fog I would have to memorize the given lines.
But thankfully that was not the case! Great puzzle
on 20. April 2025, 22:03 by abadx
A very nice idea. great experience
on 27. March 2025, 22:16 by The Bard
I don't know how you might fix this, but it was a bit hard to see the clues from the fog rolling in. To me it looked like there were 3 shades of grid lines which was confusing.
Great concept of adding clues with the fog.
on 27. March 2025, 14:31 by davidz32z
Such a good puzzle and a great original idea! Would be nice if the kropki grid lines were a bit easier to see.
on 26. March 2025, 03:53 by ostio456
Great puzzle!
on 26. March 2025, 00:41 by dzamie
Clever! Guessed how you'd done it, too, which was cool.
The kropki rule was a little tricky. The hollow line was confusing but quickly resolved; however, the "no grid line" was really difficult to see. I got stuck for a few minutes just because I couldn't quite make out that a grid line didn't actually exist between two squares.
on 25. March 2025, 08:36 by MattJones
Brilliant! So ingenious
on 25. March 2025, 06:11 by pdyxs
rules clarification
on 24. March 2025, 22:11 by MattJones
Brilliant! So ingenious
on 24. March 2025, 06:02 by pdyxs
Thanks for the lovely comments everyone, I'm so stoked that you all enjoyed the puzzle so much!
@superdog good catch, I was thinking of updating the rules a bit anyway so I'll be sure to incorporate this
on 24. March 2025, 00:47 by superdog
Very engaging and unique puzzle! Extremely small rules nitpick, I would suggest wording the second kropki clue as "If a renban line is hollow..." for clarity (I spent a bit trying to decide if a grid line could possibly be hollow)
on 23. March 2025, 20:09 by Azukay
Incredibly enjoyable puzzle, gorgeous setting all around, one of my new favourite setters
on 23. March 2025, 19:48 by ravan
very neat, and so creative, thanks for the puzzle!
on 23. March 2025, 17:59 by rares495
Gorgeous! Thanks for setting.
on 23. March 2025, 17:42 by chubnatty
A really enjoyable twist on FOW. Maybe a bit easier than 2 stars? Thanks for the fun!
on 23. March 2025, 17:04 by kublai
... or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the fog.
on 23. March 2025, 17:02 by mellowrobinson
Freaking awesome
on 23. March 2025, 14:47 by Lorena
I solved this with my girlfriend, who only solves sudoku when I trick her into doing one with me. I tried to explain to her how original you are, so I said: “90% of the people who make fog sudokus are doing the same thing as everyone else”. She then tried to finish my sentence: “…and pdxys is in the 10%”? I answered “No”, and she looked at me in confusion until I continued: “pdyxs IS the 0.1%”
on 23. March 2025, 12:59 by Fra314
Wow, so fresh and creative! Great puzzle!
on 23. March 2025, 04:28 by etoler
Really cool! Off to read the post and figure out what the heck you did here...
on 23. March 2025, 02:12 by arteful
once the fog is there, the clues are a little hard to see, but besides that, really fun!
