Xerox
(Published on 22. February 2026, 17:45 by MathGuy_12)
This was set for Scojo's Setting Saturday prompts. Juggler redeemed Phase II of this prompt to create a puzzle using one of the other invented clues from Phase I. I chose to use aqjhs's quad ranks from fragmental ablation.
Thanks to ChinStrap and damo_89 for testing!
Also check out Marty Sears's Ranked Quads for a similar ruleset!
Rules:
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Full Quad-Rank:
- All the 2x2 areas of the grid, when read in western reading order, make a total of 64 four-digit numbers.
- Clues in the center of a 2x2 area show its rank among those 64 numbers, where the lowest is 1 and the highest is 64.
- The two X’s are the same number.
- One or more equal numbers are considered to be at rank N when there are N-1 numbers of strictly lower rank. (For example, we say there are three numbers in rank 20 when there are 19 numbers of lower rank and the next rank will be 23, i.e. the ranks could go ⋯, 19, 20, 20, 20, 23, ⋯)
Solution code: Row 5
Comments
on 24. February 2026, 13:32 by Lor
The initial implications of the quad prank were easy. Some deductions after that not quite easy, but not monstrous. Then I created a jumble of circles, colors and letters to keep track of how many cells related to many other cells. I had to delete all that, but a few key relationships were now clear, which allowed coloring of almost all remaining cells and led to the solution.
Good puzzle.
on 23. February 2026, 20:01 by Fool on Hill
Clever and enjoyable - very nicely put together and surprising, even when I did get the early breakthrough, that it would all resolve. And not so hard in the end either. Beautifully done.
on 23. February 2026, 12:26 by LenD
Looked impossible with this few clues, but some deep thinking about the ranges for the different sudoku numbers in their possible ranks, gave me the break-in. Great puzzle.
on 22. February 2026, 21:09 by NotVeryNeat
Fantastic!! This took me some time, well worth it
on 22. February 2026, 19:08 by damo_89
Amazingly sparse clueing. Very well set.
