Joy
(Published on 7. October 2025, 05:00 by Sotehr)
Black Kropki: Cells separated by a black dot have values in a ratio of 1:2.
Up to N-Sums: A clue outside the grid indicates the sum of all digits between the clue and N, where N is the row or column number.
Numbered Rooms: Clues outside the grid indicate the digit which has to be placed in the Nth cell in the corresponding direction, where N is the first digit seen in that direction.
Ambiguity Clues: For every set of clues outside the grid that share a number, one is an Up to N-Sum clue and the other a Numbered Rooms clue, to be determined by the solver.
Ambiguous V: Cells separated by a V either sum to 5 or it's an inequality sign pointing at the smaller digit. It cannot be both.
NOTES
Play [Joy] on SudokuPad.
Solution code: Box 5, normal reading order.
Comments
on 8. October 2025, 22:37 by Fra314
Cool puzzle, I constantly forgot about the ambiguity bit and that dragged my solve a tad too much XD. Well done!
on 7. October 2025, 19:47 by Sotehr
Updated rule wording for clarity.
on 7. October 2025, 19:30 by sujoyku
Thank you for this fun present, Sotehr! I enjoyed it a lot and learned quite a bit about NRs. It is neat how the widely symmetric (ambiguous) clues resolve.
on 7. October 2025, 19:29 by Wile E. Coyote
I‘m with Scorps
Because there are two 1-clues, one of them has to be a Up-to-clue.
But how do you build a sum with value one with the digits until digit 1 appears without including it?
I thought it could only be meant to solve in one way (with braking the ruleset), entered it first, used the checker to verify and went on solving.
Was fun from there.
[answer from Sotehr]
- The N in an Up to N-Sum clue is the column/row number, not the digit/sum. So a 2 can't be a row 2 Up to N-Sum clue, but it could be a row 3 Up to N-Sum clue, because it would just be 2 in r3c1 and a 3 in r3c2.
Does that clarify how the Up to N-Sums work? - Sotehr
Edit (Wile E.):
Thanks for clarification.
Got it now. =)
So I missed an additional information from that clue…
