A sudoku that spells lemons
(Published on 24. June 2026, 01:01 by meloettaHD)
A cool idea i had where the first letters of the constraints make a word.
L - Little killer: Clues outside the grid indicate the sum of the digits along the diagonal indicated by the accompanying arrow. Digits may repeat along a Little Killer diagonal if permitted by other rules.
E - Even squares: Digits placed in cells containing a shaded square must be even.
M - Maximum: Cells with arrows pointing outwards must contain a digit that is strictly greater than all of its orthogonally adjacent neighbors.
O - Odd circles: Digits placed in cells containing a shaded circle must be odd.
N - Nonconsecutive: Orthogonally adjacent cells may not contain consecutive digits.
S - Slow thermometers: Digits placed along a thermometer must be non-decreasing starting from the bulb end and moving toward the tip.
(normal sudoku rules apply)
Solution code: row 4 (left to right) followed by column 7 (top to bottom)
Comments
on 24. June 2026, 17:45 by dkfan9
enjoyed the puzzle greatly, thanks. interesting to see the change in clues (I solved the version without the new thermo), my only critique is I don't like long solution codes because I play on a phone and have to jump back and forth between pages to enter it (I can quickly memorize 9 digits at a time but not 18).
meloettahd: thank you for commenting! the new thermo was added to make use of the slow thermo rule, im very sorry for the long solution code.
on 24. June 2026, 13:28 by meloettaHD
added a slow thermometer and removed some clues
on 24. June 2026, 08:18 by Narayana
A note of clarification for future solvers:
Even though the Maximum squares have a gray shaded square, these squares do not count for the Even property, and similarly the bulbs of thermos do not count for the Odd property.
I know that one can quickly reach a contradiction (for example in C1) if one assumes otherwise, but I don't think the spirit of this puzzle is to be cryptic about the rules so I thought, I might as well clarify it.
meloettahd: thank you a lot!
