a spikier conundrum
(Published on 23. October 2025, 09:10 by aqjhs)
Sotehr came up with this concept and at first it seemed impossible to materialize but it ended up working in a surprising way. Hope you like it.
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
-
Full Rank (reverse):
- The digits on columns and rows, read in both directions, make a total of 36 numbers of nine digits each.
- Clues outside the grid show the rank for the indicated row/column among those 36 numbers, where the highest is 1 and the lowest is 36.
- A 🤔 emoji is a clue and represents any integer number.
-
Periodic Sums:
- Clues outside the grid also indicate the sum of the first and every Nth value after it in the row or column, where N is the digit in the first cell seen from the clue.
See also:
- Step Sums by Sotehr
- A Step Out of Line by Sotehr and sujoyku
- a leap of faith
- the herding party
- pull prank
Solution code: Number in rank 22.
Comments
on 23. February 2026, 17:23 by Lor
I could not find the logic somewhere in the middle (53 digits filled in), so I marked a cell with a circle, chose one of the two options, and finished solving (so it turned into a lucky guess). That was bugging me though, so I backtracked and figured out I should have been thinking about rank 21 at that point, instead of 30-31-32.
Good puzzle. Thanks.
on 29. October 2025, 19:00 by earthpuzzles
This was like reading a good mystery. I wasn’t sure how the clues would come into play, and it was fun to discover!
on 23. October 2025, 23:18 by dzamie
Very tricky! Big step up from the 5x5 full-ranks that have been popping up. Got really stuck near the end, had to guess and check for errors dozens of steps deep. Not really sure if I was missing something unique to full-rank.
on 23. October 2025, 19:16 by marcmees
The « reverse » concept got me at my first attempt. Great puzzle. Thanks.
on 23. October 2025, 14:23 by Gribba Bibba
Lovely puzzle!
on 23. October 2025, 09:22 by Sotehr
A delightful combination of rule sets that I hope everyone enjoys solving!
