The Bishop (Chaconopia Role Introduction Puzzle)
(Published on 24. October 2025, 10:55 by Mad-Tyas)
Sudoku on:
SudokuPad
Rules:
1. Chaos Construction: The grid has to be devided into seven regions of orthogonally connected cells. Each row, column and region has to contain the digits 1-7 once each.
2. Roles: If certain conditions are met, cells can take roles that increase their value. The value of a cell with no role is it's digit. Role values and conditions are described below.
2.1 Role conditions and values (X = Digit in a cell)
2.1.1 Basic roles:
- Farmer (Value = 2X): To become a Farmer, a cell needs at least X cells including itself of its own region in the 3x3 area centered on the cell.
- Merchant (Value = 3X): To become a Merchant, there has to be at least one foreign region that occupies at least X orthogonally and/or diagonally touching cells of the considered cell.
- Diplomat (Value = 4X): To become a Diplomat, a cell has to be orthogonally and/or diagonally touched by at least X different other regions.
2.1.2 Special role:
- Bishop (Value = 5X): To become a Bishop, a cell needs to see at least X cells of its own region including itself in diagonal directions. Cells from other regions block the view.
2.2 Role assignation: Basic roles are automatically taken if their condition is met. If more than one condition is met, a cell takes the role with the highest value.
The Special role "Bishop" may appear only once per region and can either be taken by a cell with no role or replace the Basic role of a cell. The assignment of the Bishop role to a cell must be done according to the rule that no other cell in the same region that meets the conditions for becoming a bishop would gain a higher increase in value from this role than the cell to which the role is assigned. (See example below for clarification)
3. Clues: The value of the cell N steps away in the direction of an arrow is given in the corresponding circle. N is the digit in the cell from which the arrow extends (Example: If r1c7 would be a 3 then the value of r4c7 would have to be 4.)
Have fun solving!
Example: This is an 5x5 example picture to show how roles are assigned to cells. White circles mark the bishop cell in a region. In Region A, I only marked the cells that meet the Bishop condition (grey circles) and you can try to determine the Bishop as a little exercise. Basic roles are not marked:
- Regions B and E: The cell with 1 is the only cell that meet the Bishop condition and therefore is the Bishop.
- Region C and D: The cells with 1, 2 and 3 all meet the Bishop condition. In Region C the cell with 2 is the Bishop as it can increase it's value by 4 (from 6 to 10) compared to it's Basic role (Merchant). The cell with the 3 has the Basic role Diplomat with a value of 12 and could increase it's value only by 3 (from 12 two 15). In Region D it's the other way around.
- Region A: The cells with 1 and 2 meet the Bishop condition. Try to determine which cell is the Bishop.
Solution code: The 7 digits from column 4 (top-to-bottom) separated by (+) for borders between regions
Comments
on 24. October 2025, 16:41 by War
Harder than it looks. Nice introduction of the new role. I imagine it is impossible to constrain a special role in such a way that it can only exist once in each region, and not that only one cell can take the role even if multiple fulfil the requirements. It would also be very constraining if only one cell in each region could fulfil the bishop, for example every 1 is now a bishop and no other cells can see X diagonals, which would then mean no 2 can see a region cell diagonally etc. Very fun, looking forward to the next!
on 24. October 2025, 13:58 by ymhsbmbesitwf
I was initially skeptical about the ambiguous leftover bishops, but i realized they are similar to deadly patterns - can be avoided during construction, resolved with a small extra clue that doesn't impact the break-in, or just left alone and hope the overall puzzle satisfaction isn't too badly affected.
The puzzle was sufficiently satisfying for sure! The special role is very interesting, creating concepts like "this area will have a region where select digits are restricted to not become bishops", an unusual and very specific construction method.
I found the second half of the puzzle hard, probably due to lack of familiarity with chaconopia, but looking back all the deductions felt fair.
on 24. October 2025, 13:40 by Mad-Tyas
Had a little mistake in my example. Thanks to SennyK for catching it! It's fixed now.
on 24. October 2025, 12:50 by SennyK
Hey, I am trying to understand your rules, and I think there is a mistake in the example.
In region A, 1 is a farmer with value 2 and 2 is a diplomat with value 8. So 1 can get 3 extra points as bishop, while 2 only 2 extra points. Doesn't it make only 1 a bishop?
Also, what does it mean that both could be the bishop? Some other rules will determine which one is a bishop? And also I assume that your example show only bishop assignments and some cells from example also have basic roles?
-Reply: Thanks for catching the mistake! Your assumption regarding the Basic roles in the example is correct.
