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.
The Erica Series:
Episodes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
If you liked this puzzle, I recommend trying out my other puzzles:
Symmetrical Fan
Night Club
Cops & Robbers
Broken Flashlight in the Dark
Blown Fuses in Electrical Installation
Important Hour on the Clock
Let Me Introduce Myself
Positive Symmetry
Pretty Odd Shaded Area <- Recommended for you!
It's What You Do in the Dark That Puts You in the Light
What Was the Sum Again?
(+5)-Yang <- Recommended for you!
Disgroup Joints
Find It All
What the Fog?
10-Arrows
Negative 8 YY <- Recommended for you!
Why-Why? <- Recommended for you!
French Wrench
Solution code: Fifth (5th) column of the grid from top to bottom.
Comments
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?
