Pretty Odd Shaded Area
(Published on 31. October 2025, 16:00 by SennyK)
I hope you will enjoy my ninth puzzle.
I really like this one, I think this is an interesting idea, try yourself!
I would be really grateful for all the comments and ratings.
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Pretty Odd Shaded Area: Shade some cells in the grid so that all shaded cells are orthogonally connected and no 2×2 region is entirely shaded (it does not apply to unshaded cells). The shaded area cannot touch itself diagonally and consists of all the odd digits (i.e., there is no even digit in the shaded area and no odd digit in the unshaded area).
Circles and arrows: All circles belong to the shaded area. Digit N in the circle informs that it orthogonally sees exactly N shaded cells (including itself). Unshaded cells block vision. Additionally, digit N in the circle informs that cell(s) N steps away in the direction(s) pointed to by the arrow(s) is/are also shaded. All arrows for all circles are given (i.e., if a cell can be seen N steps away from the circle, but is not pointed to by an arrow, it is unshaded).
V: Digits in cells joined by a V sum to 5. All Vs are given.
Killer: Digits in a cage sum to the total given.
Dynamic fog: The grid is partially covered in fog. Entering correct digits may clear fog somewhere in the grid. No guessing is required.
If you liked this puzzle, I recommend trying out my other puzzles: The Erica Series:★☆☆☆☆: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 12, 15, 17, 23, 26, 27
★★☆☆☆: 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25
★★★☆☆: 9, 19, 21, 22 Shading/Ying-Yang:
★★☆☆☆: Pretty Odd Shaded Area
★★★☆☆: (+5)-Yang, Negative 8 YY
★★★★★: Why-Why? Fog of War:
★☆☆☆☆: Erica 12, Erica 17
★★☆☆☆: It's What You Do in the Dark That Puts You in the Light, Find It All, What the Fog?, Erica 20
★★★☆☆: Broken Flashlight in the Dark Pencil Puzzle/Sudoku Hybrid:
★★☆☆☆: Masyu (Short) Sudoku
★★★☆☆: Tetromino Sudoku
Various Puzzles:
★☆☆☆☆: Blown Fuses in Electrical Installation, Let Me Introduce Myself, French Wrench
★★☆☆☆: Symmetrical Fan, Night Club, Important Hour on the Clock, What Was the Sum Again?, Disgroup Joints, 10-Arrows, Antiking Dutch Skyscrapers
★★★☆☆: Cops & Robbers, Positive Symmetry, Doppelgänger Killer 1-25
★★★★☆: Liars. Liars Everywhere.
Solution code: Ninth (9th) row of the grid from left to right (with the symbol "/" marking borders between shaded and unshaded cells, e.g., 123/4567/89).
Comments
on 9. November 2025, 06:00 by StanleySudokunitz
Another great sudoku! Love the unique use of rules!
on 9. November 2025, 03:56 by StanleySudokunitz
Another great sudoku! Love the unique use of rules!
on 6. November 2025, 17:32 by AwkwardAward
Really enjoyed this sudoku, I think the rules work together nicely. (Tbh I just generally love a shaded area sudoku). I did spend 30 minutes just hopelessly trying to find the next step, because I completely forgot about the "All Vs are given" rule... Besides that it was a really nice solve.
SK: Thank you for a nice comment! I have changed the negative Vs constraint to bolded red so it is better visible :-)
on 6. November 2025, 11:09 by Aronana
We were stumped for ages because we missed the detail about all Vs being given (T-T)
on 6. November 2025, 06:48 by QuiltyAsCharged
Excellent and fun puzzle! It is basically Islands (aka Nurikabe) but a little like Yin-Yang because of the rule against diagonal touching (which means no checkerboards.)
on 3. November 2025, 16:11 by galium_odoratum
Very interesting ruleset, I liked how everthing resolved at the end. For me (no previous experience with the islands ruleset) I would rate the difficulty at 2.5 - 3.
on 2. November 2025, 03:33 by VitP
just reading the rules, i'd say this is level 3.
why ?
1) it's LIKE a yin-yang puzzle (which is automatically level 2) BUT slightly different, so any accumulated yy experience won't help.
2) PLUS a couple standard variants
3) PLUS a couple non-standard variants.
actually, the variant is known as ISLANDS.
experienced solvers will find this quite easy.
on 1. November 2025, 03:07 by Cantabrigiensis
I really enjoyed this puzzle, thank you so very much for taking the time to create and publish it.
