Taste the Tension
(Published on 27. October 2025, 11:54 by GameWorksRP)
This puzzle is a successor to Shady Showdown, which had a similar ruleset. There I was not fully able to remove every digit and make the puzzle how I wanted it. This one I think I did manage to do that, but things can always be improved on of course. This one did turn out slightly easier than the last one I think, but should still be a bit of challenge for people inexperienced with Yin-Yang. Setting this puzzle was a lot of fun and I want to work more on bigger puzzles like this one. For my next project I am looking at loop puzzles, but I am not fully certain yet.
Check out my other puzzles: Published puzzles
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply, place the digits 1-9 in every row column and box.
Yin-Yang: Shade some cells such that no shaded or unshaded cells form a 2x2, and each consists of one orthogonally connected region.
Cages: Shaded cells within a cage have the same sum as the unshaded cells within that cage. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.
The puzzle
This puzzle was created as a series on my channel. Any feedback on the puzzle or the method of setting is highly appreciated!
Solution code: Row six digits with the same shading as the first digit. No spaces or separations. (For example: 56314)
Comments
on 5. November 2025, 07:26 by Norkas
That was very enjoyable. Maybe I'm rusty with yin yang, but it had a few yin yang related steps that felt more intricate than what most puzzles use it for and I wasn't really on the lookout for.
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I am glad you enjoyed the puzzle! Yin Yang is one of my favorite rulesets, so I tried to make it as much as possible a part of the solve instead of an afterthought. This does make it less approachable for people though, so I am glad to hear people still enjoy the challenge!
on 4. November 2025, 09:03 by oskode
Awesome puzzle! A lot of fun ”Aha”-moments sprinkled throughout, very cool setting. Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you for the kind words. Also I am a great fan of your puzzles!
on 29. October 2025, 19:29 by War
I think your original 3* rating is correct. As long as you know the border rules for YY and since the borders have lots of cages, it is very approachable. - Also you're right, I am very very cool
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It's very hard to estimate difficulty when you create the logic, so I am happy the solvers give their rating.
Thank you for trying it out!
on 28. October 2025, 21:02 by Chaka
Quite a tough puzzle for me but also very nice setting! Definitely one of the more difficult YY puzzles.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
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Thank you for trying out my puzzle!
on 28. October 2025, 11:15 by GameWorksRP
Set difficulty to 4*
on 28. October 2025, 09:34 by VitP
as a general rule, any yy puzzle is automatically level 3.
THIS one is much harder than a basic yy, so must be level 4 at least.
specifically, you need to know all the basic yy tricks just to get SOME shading started. so it's definitely an "experts only" puzzle. after that, a couple of the cages allow you to write in some candidates, but 80% of the cages give basically zero information.
i wasn't able to find even ONE digit, after an hour of searching
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I changed the difficulty to 4*, I intended it as a 3* puzzle but it became harder than expected to make a solvable puzzle without an extra constaint. Thank you for the feedback!
