Erica 16
(Published on 26. November 2025, 18:15 by SennyK)
Today we have rather challenging Erica with tricky things to notice ;-)
Time flies very quickly, so make sure you use it to your advantage! :-)
I hope you will enjoy and I would be really grateful for all the comments and ratings.
Normal sudoku rules apply.
German whisper: Neighbouring/adjacent digits along a green line have a difference of at least 5.
X/V: Digits in cells joined by an X sum to 10. Digits in cells joined by a V sum to 5. Not all Xs and Vs are given.
Entropic: Any sequence of 3 adjacent digits along a peach line must have a low digit (123), a medium digit (456) and a high digit (789). For lines shorter than 3 cells, each digit must belong to a different entropic group.
Entropic Line Explanation:
Basically, if one digit on the line is low, then every third digit will also be low; same applies for the remaining groups.
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: Fifth (5th) column of the grid from top to bottom.
Comments
on 16. December 2025, 19:31 by Emigma
Was stuck on this for aaaages and it took me several days but then something clicked. Thanks for a nice puzzle!
on 28. November 2025, 22:49 by Cyprane
That was a lot of fun. It was helpful for me to start with high low to setup the main German Whisper, then switch to Entropic coloring to finish the puzzle. Thank you for the puzzle.
on 26. November 2025, 22:08 by wuc
Cool 2* puzzle with nice constraint interactions thx.
on 26. November 2025, 22:01 by sparkymanu
Fun Erica puzzle as always, thank you for that !
As for the difficulty, I would say 1 or 2*
on 26. November 2025, 21:52 by Ashen
I had two solutions that did not violate the rules. When I got to the end of the puzzle I was left with c3r4-6 and c7r4-6. I shaded the entire puzzle via entropic groups to make sure. Perhaps I missed something but the two cell entropic lines were the hitch for me. I understood they had to be from different groups but could not logically deduce which groups at the end. I got there via a logic leap though. Overall I really enjoyed this one. Great Work!!!
SK: Thank you for the comment! For me those cells resolved pretty early on (keeping in mind that digits in 2-cell entropic lines musty be from different entropic groups). You can reach me on DC (SennyK7), I will share replay of my solve :-)
on 26. November 2025, 21:44 by SennyK
Clarified entropic line rule
on 26. November 2025, 21:38 by ketchup_monster
I agree that it's intuitive to have 2 different groups, but it's technically not needed. Having 2 of the same does not violate the Entropic rule as given here.
on 26. November 2025, 20:46 by ketchup_monster
Super fun as always! Just wanted to point out a small technicality: The entropic line only has a rule for 3 adjacent digits and because of that there is an ambiguity in the entropic lines of size 2. A different interpretation gave me a different solution (with the same column 5 though, so still works!)
SK: Thank you for comment! I thought that it is obvious that 2 cell entropic line will have each digit from a different group, so 2 of 3 groups will be used, what is the other possibility?
