Hot Buddy / Heißer Kumpel
(Published on 5. August 2026, 14:48 by PDN777)
Normal sudoku rules apply. Standard palindrome, kropki (no negative constraint), and thermo rules apply. (Digits along the peach palindrome lines must read the same forward and backwards. Neighboring digits marked with a white Kropki dot are consecutive. Neighboring digits marked with a black Kropki dot have a 2 to 1 ratio. Not all dots are given. Digits on a thermometer must strictly increase from the bulb end.) I think this puzzle is 1.5 stars out of 5 for difficulty for many solvers. As always, comments welcome. Thanks!
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Solution code: First row of puzzle.
Comments
on 7. August 2026, 15:10 by PDN777
Thanks everyone for the solves, despite the perhaps dubious formatting! ;-) It honestly didn't occur to me that it would be confusing, perhaps because of @philolologue's observation that in standard sudoku a palindrome can never behave like a thermo. Next time I'll be sure to completely cover the grey line with color. In any event, I'm glad you all found a way through, and I hope you'll be back to fly PDN Puzzles. :-)
on 6. August 2026, 12:15 by philolologue
This was loads of fun! Easy break-in and a few less obvious steps towards the end to make it 1.5 stars for difficulty as mentioned in the description. Not sure what the fuss in the comments is about the palindromes, pretty clearly can't have a palindrome overlapping a thermometer in basic Sudoku (i.e. with no doubler-type rules changing cell values). Thanks for posting, loved it! 14-min time for me.
on 6. August 2026, 06:08 by SanFranSam
I agree wtih the other comments about the palindrome lines being outlined in grey. I was about to give up that there was some double secret technique to making the long thermomemter/palindrome work, until i read the comments.
on 6. August 2026, 02:55 by fallean
Nah I liked it, flow wasnt bad and there was no bifurcation needed for the top right palidrome. But I agree the grey on the palidromes was trippy lol
on 5. August 2026, 21:24 by michael_787
Outlining the palindromes in grey was a bad idea: thought at first they were thermos as well as palindromes. After I realized, it was plain sailing.
on 5. August 2026, 18:59 by JVA
Couldn't figure out the top right palindrome without bifurcation
on 5. August 2026, 17:33 by JVA
Why are the palindromes outlined in grey? Makes them look like they're thermos
on 5. August 2026, 17:05 by galium_odoratum
1* diff more me. It was overall good puzzle, but the flow was a bit too inconsistent for my taste: the beginning & most of the longer thermos were quite trivial, midgame required some scanning which took a lot more time without being difficult. Still fun to solve.
