Hazy Cipher (Dynamic FoW)
(Published on 13. April 2025, 17:58 by gdc)
This puzzle was created for a setting challenge about ciphered clues. According to testers (thanks everyone), the difficulty should be similar to my other dynamic fog puzzles (3*-4*). Hope you enjoy!
Fog hides some clues. Placing a logically deduced digit lifts fog from its cell and sometimes other cells.
Cages with the same letter have the same sum.
Solution code: Row 9, left to right (9 digits)
Comments
on 1. July 2025, 04:41 by Agent
Awesome puzzle, super clean logic throughout!
on 20. April 2025, 11:25 by Visumation
Very nice. 14 min. for me, so maybe 2 star for me. I really liked the break-in.
on 18. April 2025, 01:55 by fitzie
i was lucky to only use two colors for my solve. I'm not sure if that was the best strategy, because this took me quite some time, but it the fog lifting was perfect feedback to keep me going. great puzzle.
on 17. April 2025, 05:22 by konklone
This was very hard for me but stayed fascinating the whole time and I was determined to finish it. Unlike some others here, I found the steps after the break-in to stay hard until it finally collapsed at the end. Really masterful setting.
on 16. April 2025, 22:08 by PancakePie
My color coding got WILD and I had to set this down and come back a couple times. When I finally was in the last paces, I felt like I had cracked an impossible equation. Wonderful build! Thanks for this beautiful, tough, and fun time!
on 16. April 2025, 12:25 by The Book Wyrm
Very cool puzzle. Pretty ticky for me, the break-in, while cool, took a lot of thought to figure out. The rest of the puzzle was easier, and very fun (using some of my favourite kinds of logic).
on 15. April 2025, 08:51 by Djirt
Прекрасный пазл, спасибо!
on 15. April 2025, 00:19 by v8nagrom
No words needed, gdc. What a puzzle!
on 14. April 2025, 19:39 by SnS
this was GREAT!
on 14. April 2025, 10:35 by Snookerfan
Beautiful, quite hard though, lots of fun! Thank you
on 14. April 2025, 07:57 by TheNineElements
Solve Time: 23:48
I rated this 3/5 difficulty.
Sraightforward ruleset with some excellent geometry & logic! Great puzzle! The break-in is probably in my top 5 all-time favorites.
As mentioned, the break-in was definitely my favorite part and also the trickiest aspect of the solve - definitely within 3* territory. I found the remainder of the solve to be much easier (after I had deduced the values/relationships of several cage letters) - but the puzzle still did a great job of utilizing dFoW up until the very end. The break in was stellar, and the remainder of the puzzle was also very fun and engaging.
It was tricky for me to assign an overall difficulty rating for the puzzle. On one hand, I wouldn't expect a beginner solver to find the break-in on their own - automatically making the difficulty greater than 1-2* IMO. On the other hand, if a beginner (or low intermediate) solver would be "given"/told the underlying logic for the break-in - I think they would have a very good chance of understanding it and completing the remainder of the puzzle. I decided on 3* due to the "barrier to entry", but I definitely understand any rating of 2*.
Thanks for sharing!
on 14. April 2025, 00:53 by Douglass
What a great puzzle!! You really made the most out of dynamic fog, every step of the way ;)
on 13. April 2025, 22:45 by wuc
My 999th solve - and a wonderful one. Better I didnt see the 14 mins in the comments ;-). For me at least 3*. Full marking necessary. Great hard awesome thx.
on 13. April 2025, 22:34 by Exigus
That was really nice, thanks
on 13. April 2025, 21:33 by Freegerator
This one was tricky to break in, but flowed naturally after that, and was really fun. Thank you!
on 13. April 2025, 21:29 by Visumation
Very nice. 14 min. for me, so maybe 2 star for me. I really liked the break-in.
on 13. April 2025, 21:21 by Azukay
A fun smooth solve, enjoyable logic and overall incredible setting
on 13. April 2025, 19:17 by sujoyku
Quite hard, but an absolutely beautiful puzzle! Thank you, gdc!
