Foggy Foregone Conclusion
(Published on 19. January 2026, 13:29 by pagedo)
Do not Jump to a foregone conclusion.
Normal Sudoku rules apply.
For accessibility, lines have been marked with an abbreviation to distinguish them as an alternative to the line's colour.
Cells connected by a pink Renban [RN] line form a set of consecutive digits, in any order, without repeats.
Adjacent digits along a green German Whisper [GW] line must differ by at least 5.
Digits on the grey Palindrome [PD] line read the same forwards and backwards.
Numbers on a Thermometer strictly increase as they move away from the bulb.
Digits in cells joined by an X sum to 10. Digits in cells joined by an V sum to 5.
Digits in cells joined by a white dot are consecutive. Digits in cells joined by a black dot are in a 2:1 ratio.
Not all Xs, Vs or dots are necessarily given.
NOTE: A final rule will be revealed at the appropriate time.
Parts of the grid are covered in fog. Placing correct digits may clear some fog somewhere in the grid.
Solve with SudokuPad
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Hope you enjoy it. Feel free to give feedback.
Thanks
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Solution code: Column 6 digits
Comments
yesterday, 20:35 by Diddlmus
I gave it an average rating - liked the breakin but I dislike fog variants were I have a lot of numbers placed on fog that isn’t cleared. And was a bit disappointed that most of the hidden rules didn’t do much.
on 20. January 2026, 03:44 by pagedo
pagedo: @Geoloco, @Pairot, @Sralser, @sparkymanu, @Myfyr MJ, @Martina, @maniacaljackal, @VitP
Firstly thank you all for trying my puzzle and your comments. To me this is a trivial puzzle with only 3 things of note.
1 - The connection between the opening image and the Title. The conclusion should be obvious for about 1 second until you see it is foregone.
2 - The Box 6 opening break in. Hopefully you enjoyed it without too much difficulty.
3 - The Hidden Rule. This rule is hidden so you get to undertake the break in, otherwise a fair bit of the break in opening logic is lost. The wording of the hidden rule is deliberately painful so you have think about the four objects - numbers, digits, words and cells and you have to consider what words the three letters shown could be included in eg "sixty-six".
I knew it would cause grief as you have to read it two to three times to understand what is being said. I could have just said
*****SPOILER*******
pencil mark a 6 either side and including the "six" cell in the direction shown by the word.
*******************
This hidden rule is the last bit of real solving that is required. Once you work out the rule and apply it the rest of the puzzle is just follow the dots and Sudoku.
Solving the Hidden Rule Text and applying appropriate pencil marks leads to a solvable, trivial puzzle.
on 20. January 2026, 03:30 by kublai
I thought it was great! The extra rule was clear enough and played nicely with the fog (or rather didn't play nicely - which was very nice). Thanks for the puzzle!
on 19. January 2026, 23:13 by VitP
i am sorry, but this puzzle CANNOT be solved without "cheating" (using the cell checker).
i did SOME testing, but am not going to fully solve the grid.
i have seen enough to get some idea of the INTENT of the "extra" rule, and it's clear that that ACTUAL meaning of the rule AS WRITTEN does NOT correspond to the intent.
having said that, giving the puzzle such a low rating is inappropriate. tell the setter that a rules clarification is needed, and wait for him to fix it.
on 19. January 2026, 18:35 by Martina
Not for me, I didn't get the rule. Thanks anyway.
on 19. January 2026, 18:30 by Myfyr MJ
This was confusing but i got there in the end. Nearer 3 stars as it wasn’t obvious how to deal with the text clues. Sorry.
on 19. January 2026, 18:22 by sparkymanu
I'm sorry but I really didn't like it :( I have been doing some of your puzzles and they were pretty fun, but this one didn't hit me.
The additionnal rule was very difficult to understand without me "guessing" what you meant and once I understood, the puzzle became way too easy, which was a bit frustrating after struggling so much to understand the rule.
Sorry for negative feedback, but I still hope you continue setting more puzzles since I geniunely enjoyed the others!
on 19. January 2026, 17:09 by Sralser
Extra rule confused me at first
on 19. January 2026, 15:14 by Pairot
Why do creative people never know how to write a sentence right.
on 19. January 2026, 14:21 by Geoloco
Nice idea and nice puzzle. I struggled a bit with the extra rule in the beginning, since I interpreted the rule to be a single number instead of varying nnumbers
