Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

About This Puzzle

This is the third edition of "Dazed Out", a puzzle series primarily built around the Sudoku variant "Chaos Construction". Similar to the first puzzle, this one also experiments with the gold-cells rule, but brings in Japanese Sums to the equation. I expect this to be far easier than Gold Rush for solving.

Puzzle Series

#1 Gold Rush #2 Baby Steps #3 Current

RULES

• 1. Chaos Construction: Divide the grid into 9 regions that all consist of 9 orthogonally connected cells each. Place the digits 1-9 in every row, column and region once each.
• 2. Japanese Sums: Shade some cells such that the clues to the left and top of the grid indicate the sums of the consecutive unshaded cell blocks in their row or column, in the correct order. For each row and column, either all or no clues are given. A ? represents any digit 1-9.
• 3. Gold Cells: Every unshaded cell is treated as a gold-cell and contains its position within its row, column or region (in normal reading order, left to right and top down). You must find ALL possible unshaded/gold cells. Likewise, a shaded cell can never contain a digit that satisfies any of those requirements.
• 4. Circles: A digit in a circled cell is equal to the number of unshaded cells in its region, and each region has one circled cell.

Example Solution

This example illustrates how the rules interact in practice, including gold cells, Japanese sums, and circled digits.

▶ Play on SudokuPad

Solution code: Find the highest circled digit on the grid. Enter the digits of its region in normal reading order (top to down and left to right).