Fawlty Towers
(Published on 4. December 2025, 01:00 by EdTheAlchemist)
What could be more appropriate than Fawlty Towers for a hotel-themed puzzle with an extra chaos rule? This is the sixth puzzle in my series of chaos construction/extra chaos puzzles, each with a particular constraint telling you what's in each area... but this is the most difficult yet! I know, I said that about the previous one too! Today is numbered rooms! If you enjoy it, please be sure to check out the previous examples:
Chaos Construction: Divide the hotel (the grid!) into nine orthogonally-connected regions, so that each row, column and region contains all the digits 1 through 9 without repetition.
Extra Chaos: It would be hard for this hotel to be more chaotic! No 2x2 square anywhere in the grid may be entirely part of the same region.
Seeing Cells: Seeing cells count the number of cells visible orthogonally (that is, in the four cardinal directions) in the same region as themselves, including themselves. Other regions block line of sight. Only room numbers and the actual rooms are seeing cells. No other cells are seeing cells.
Numbered Rooms: Clues outside the grid indicate the digit which has to be placed in the Nth cell in the corresponding direction, where N is the digit placed in the first cell in that direction. A ? can represent any number. Both the first cell (the room number) and the cell it indicates (the room itself) are seeing cells.
Room with a View: If a numbered room clue is in a golden circle, it is also a skyscraper clue. The view from the clue consists of all cells which are not blocked by a larger cell between them and the clue; the clue tells you how many such cells are in the view. If a ?, it is the same number as the numbered room clue.
Manuel: In doing his work around the hotel, Manuel is anything but efficient. Pink lines represent where he is cleaning. Any two or three consecutive cells along a pink line have different entropies (low from 1, 2 or 3; medium from 4, 5 or 6; high from 7, 8 or 9); any two adjacent cells on a pink line are in different regions.
Solution code: Sixth row
Comments
on 4. December 2025, 08:33 by kid
Candidates in the same row or column don't turn red when they conflict, which makes solving the puzzle very inconvenient.
on 4. December 2025, 05:13 by Eespi
Nice! Lots of rules but they are well-explained and clear in the grid. Once I grasped them it was smooth sailing. The last third or so of the puzzle felt less interesting than the start, which was a little anticlimactic but still a good time
