Ciphered Cross the Streams #2 ft. Irrwisch (16x16)
(Published on 5. June 2026, 08:00 by Playmaker6174)
The following puzzle is the second entry of my (brief) road trip that centers around the Cross the Streams genre.
For the first one, see this link.
In this entry, I utilized a certain wild element for a big portion of the solve and eventually developed a whole puzzle from there. It took me many attempts to finally click well with the later half of the solve and I was happy enough to see how the official result turned out.
I think this one is relatively more approachable than the last entry but it should also have a consistent flow throughout too.
Special thanks again to Jesper for testing this one! For now, do enjoy the puzzle!
Rules:
1) Cross the Streams rules apply:
- Shade some cells in the 16x16 grid so that all shaded cells form a single orthogonally connected area, and no 2x2 area anywhere in the grid can be entirely shaded.
- A circle clue outside the grid corresponds to exactly one continuous group of shaded cells in its row/column, and its contained number shows the length of that group, if given. Group of unshaded cell[s] separates between the clues.
- The correct order of the circle clues is from left to right for the rows and from top to bottom for the columns. An asterisk (*) clue shows an arbitrary number of circle clues, which can be none.
2) In this puzzle, all given clues have been ciphered, and there are also some special rules for the ciphered clues:
- Each letter from the set {A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H} will correspond to a number that needs to be deduced. For letters coming from that set, same letters will correspond to same numbers, while different letters will correspond to different numbers.
- The letter I acts as an Irrwisch clue, meaning that each instance of letter I within the clues will correspond to a different number.
(the extra edges in the 16x16 grid are to help keeping track of the counting, they don't serve any other purpose)
Puzzle: Penpa plus - Sudokupad
The answer check in penpa link will activate once both following conditions are met: the shading in the 16x16 grid is correctly done and the ciphers table of the letters from A to H on the right side has correctly filled numbers. The Irrwisch table for letter I isn't required for the answer check, but it can also be used to keep track of its numbers during the solve.
Good luck and have fun solving!
For the first one, see this link.
In this entry, I utilized a certain wild element for a big portion of the solve and eventually developed a whole puzzle from there. It took me many attempts to finally click well with the later half of the solve and I was happy enough to see how the official result turned out.
I think this one is relatively more approachable than the last entry but it should also have a consistent flow throughout too.
Special thanks again to Jesper for testing this one! For now, do enjoy the puzzle!
Rules:
1) Cross the Streams rules apply:
- Shade some cells in the 16x16 grid so that all shaded cells form a single orthogonally connected area, and no 2x2 area anywhere in the grid can be entirely shaded.
- A circle clue outside the grid corresponds to exactly one continuous group of shaded cells in its row/column, and its contained number shows the length of that group, if given. Group of unshaded cell[s] separates between the clues.
- The correct order of the circle clues is from left to right for the rows and from top to bottom for the columns. An asterisk (*) clue shows an arbitrary number of circle clues, which can be none.
2) In this puzzle, all given clues have been ciphered, and there are also some special rules for the ciphered clues:
- Each letter from the set {A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H} will correspond to a number that needs to be deduced. For letters coming from that set, same letters will correspond to same numbers, while different letters will correspond to different numbers.
- The letter I acts as an Irrwisch clue, meaning that each instance of letter I within the clues will correspond to a different number.
(the extra edges in the 16x16 grid are to help keeping track of the counting, they don't serve any other purpose)
Puzzle: Penpa plus - Sudokupad
The answer check in penpa link will activate once both following conditions are met: the shading in the 16x16 grid is correctly done and the ciphers table of the letters from A to H on the right side has correctly filled numbers. The Irrwisch table for letter I isn't required for the answer check, but it can also be used to keep track of its numbers during the solve.
Good luck and have fun solving!
Solution code: For this entry, enter the lengths of the continuous shaded groups in column 3, then column 4 and finally column 5 (the three columns marked with red arrows). Each column is entered from top to bottom.
Solved by Jesper, Agent, lerroyy, ClashCode, Sewerin, zzw, ns08
Comments
on 23. June 2026, 14:36 by lerroyy
very nice
on 8. June 2026, 06:54 by Agent
Great fun! A very tricky break-in followed by a smooth solve.
on 5. June 2026, 08:38 by Jesper
Great puzzle, enjoyed it a lot!
