Top Floor
(Published on 7. January 2026, 01:20 by ThePedallingPianist)
This is my response to Scojo's setting prompt for a couple of weeks ago, for which the wheel spun Dutch Flatmates and Squishdoku. Many thanks to Justin V and my dad for testing, as well as Marty Sears and ViKingPrime for their feedback.
MODIFIED SQUISHDOKU
Fill every cell of the main 5x9 grid with a digit from 1-9 such that no digit repeats in a row, column or 3x3 box. There are six 3x3 boxes in this puzzle, each of which overlaps with its horizontal neighbour along the dashed grey line.
DUTCH FLATMATES
Every 5 in the grid must have a '1' directly above it or a '9' directly below it. It may have both, but it doesn't need both.
PATH DRAWING
Help Jody reach the top floor of this block of flats! He enters in the bottom left cell, and may travel through the block of flats in any of three ways:
• Jody may walk HORIZONTALLY along any floor;
• Adjacent digits on a horizontal segment of Jody's path must differ by at least 4.
• Jody may use an ELEVATOR by entering the number of the destination floor on the Elevator symbol (two yellow arrows), then moving vertically to that floor;
• The destination floor does not need to contain an Elevator symbol;
• Digits must increase as the Elevator ascends or decrease as the elevator descends;
• For example, Jody could use the Elevator on Floor 4 by entering a 6 on the yellow arrows, then travelling to Floor 6 in the same column, increasing from 6 as he goes.
• Jody may use STAIRS by travelling in a straight diagonal line from a cell containing stairs;
• The destination floor does not need to contain a Stairs symbol;
• Digits on a diagonal segment must form an arithmetic sequence (i.e. a constant difference between adjacent digits, though this difference may be different for different diagonal segments);
• Digits must increase as diagonal segments ascend or decrease as diagonal segments descend.
Note: Jody is not obliged to use all Elevators and Stairs, and may even pass through them horizontally without using them. Any unused Elevators and Stairs may contain any digit and have no associated rules.
LOCAL CONSTRAINTS:
• The teal line is a MODULAR LINE, i.e. any set of 3 consecutive digits on this line must contain one from each of the sets [1,4,7], [2,5,8] and [3,6,9];
• Digits separated by a white KROPKI dot are consecutive.
MODIFIED SQUISHDOKU
Fill every cell of the main 5x9 grid with a digit from 1-9 such that no digit repeats in a row, column or 3x3 box. There are six 3x3 boxes in this puzzle, each of which overlaps with its horizontal neighbour along the dashed grey line.
DUTCH FLATMATES
Every 5 in the grid must have a '1' directly above it or a '9' directly below it. It may have both, but it doesn't need both.
PATH DRAWING
Help Jody reach the top floor of this block of flats! He enters in the bottom left cell, and may travel through the block of flats in any of three ways:
• Jody may walk HORIZONTALLY along any floor;
• Adjacent digits on a horizontal segment of Jody's path must differ by at least 4.
• Jody may use an ELEVATOR by entering the number of the destination floor on the Elevator symbol (two yellow arrows), then moving vertically to that floor;
• The destination floor does not need to contain an Elevator symbol;
• Digits must increase as the Elevator ascends or decrease as the elevator descends;
• For example, Jody could use the Elevator on Floor 4 by entering a 6 on the yellow arrows, then travelling to Floor 6 in the same column, increasing from 6 as he goes.
• Jody may use STAIRS by travelling in a straight diagonal line from a cell containing stairs;
• The destination floor does not need to contain a Stairs symbol;
• Digits on a diagonal segment must form an arithmetic sequence (i.e. a constant difference between adjacent digits, though this difference may be different for different diagonal segments);
• Digits must increase as diagonal segments ascend or decrease as diagonal segments descend.
Note: Jody is not obliged to use all Elevators and Stairs, and may even pass through them horizontally without using them. Any unused Elevators and Stairs may contain any digit and have no associated rules.
LOCAL CONSTRAINTS:
• The teal line is a MODULAR LINE, i.e. any set of 3 consecutive digits on this line must contain one from each of the sets [1,4,7], [2,5,8] and [3,6,9];
• Digits separated by a white KROPKI dot are consecutive.
Solution code: Top Floor! (left to right, 5 digits)
Solved by ralphwaldo1, bboom, zeniko, SKORP17, sehringdipity, aqjhs, widjo, gdc, ChinStrap, Voidslime, Neumino, ErnoWindt, BlazingSnow, Clara123, dorverbin, akodi, han233ing, astralfenix, Isael
Comments
on 8. January 2026, 17:01 by Voidslime
Wow what a doozy! This puzzle is beautiful, brutal, and Criminally underrated. 5* fun and 5* challenge. I used answer check to cheat for the first time ever because of how hard stuck i got near the bottom
on 7. January 2026, 13:39 by bboom
Fun quirky puzzle that had me spinning a bit at times, but in the end it all flowed together quite neatly, once I had a grip on the restrictions of the stairs and elevators.
