Ranked Quads
(Published on 22. February 2026, 17:01 by marty_sears)
Rules:
Normal 6x6 sudoku rules apply.
QUAD CLUES: A digit appearing in a circle must appear in the surrounding 2x2 area. (If a digit appears twice in the circle it must appear twice in the 2x2 area.)
RANKED QUADS: The 25 2x2 areas in the grid each contain a 4-digit number (read in normal reading order from top left to bottom right.) If all these 4-digit numbers are ranked from lowest to highest (with rank 1 being the lowest and rank 25 being the highest), the number in a circle also gives the rank of its surrounding 2x2 area. All the 4-digit numbers are different, so there are no tied ranks.
Solution code: Rank 15
Comments
on 25. February 2026, 22:01 by ThymePass
I really enjoyed this rule-set!
<3 6x6
Thanks Marty and Aqjhs :)
on 23. February 2026, 07:17 by Klausku
I‘ve done a few full rank puzzles lately so this minimalistic one flowed surprisingly smoothly for me. Brilliant again. Thanks Marty.
on 23. February 2026, 04:37 by hamosphere
My brain hurts!
on 23. February 2026, 03:07 by Clementi
Incredible how you keep coming up new rules and contraint types with virtually every new puzzle. So impressive.
on 23. February 2026, 02:31 by ThePedallingPianist
I see you're joining the dark side, with your full rank and impressive minimalism... I love it!
on 23. February 2026, 00:04 by Atticus837
What a cool idea! It never ceases to amaze me how you're able to take an idea like this that seems like it would be hard to set restrictively, and then not only make a great puzzle out of it but also perfectly set up use of all of the available logical tricks once and nothing more.
It's like you've created a setup that has its own unique and interesting logical quirks to discover, and taking us on a guided tour of what you've found.
Keep up the good work!
on 22. February 2026, 21:19 by BG03
90% rating at the time of writing is unjustifiably low for this wonderfully crafted puzzle
on 22. February 2026, 21:13 by wuc
Awesome.
on 22. February 2026, 20:27 by mscha
Tricky, but doable, once you figure out the logic. Nice!
on 22. February 2026, 20:26 by Fool on Hill
Beautifully done. I've no idea how you set this - with clues on one side of the grid only.
on 22. February 2026, 19:42 by eladv
whow, that was great! Somehow, my favorite part was disambiguating the last deadly pattern. But really, everything (including the big a-ha moment) was amazing.
on 22. February 2026, 17:53 by richcard
Reading the rules and looking at the grid, I couldn't believe this was a 2*. But things kept clicking into place - it's amazing what you've done with so little.
This might be a me-problem, but I wasn't sure whether the rules meant that, for example, the 22 needed two 2s in the cells around it.
Marty: thanks, I've added a clarification.
