Blocked by 0
(Published on 7. October 2026, 13:40 by Md88keys)
by Md88keys
Play in Sudokupad
Place the digit 0 once in every row and column.
Fill the rest of the grid (do not include the 0 cells) with ten orthogonally connected regions. Place the digits 1-9 in each row, column, and irregular region.
Clues outside the grid equal the sum of the digits seen along the row or column indicated, between the clue and the cell with the digit 0.
The color of each clue outside the grid indicates the number of regions before the 0, and must be determined by the solver. (All clues of the same color have the same number of regions) For clarity, red clues are circled and blue clues are squared.
X pairs cells that sum to 10. V pairs cells that sum to 5. Both cells in an XV pair must be in the same region.
Negative constraint: All possible X and V pairs within each region are given.
Solution code: List the digits in the column, top to bottom, that would have the clue "green 45"
Comments
on 13. October 2026, 01:56 by pmays123
Incredibly fun puzzle! Thanks for sharing :)
on 12. October 2026, 15:56 by PrissyP
Cool Puzzle, very smooth.
on 12. October 2026, 14:00 by Aeon
I thought i broke something when i got to final disambiguation.
Nope, just me completely forgetting about negative constraint until the very final few digits making the puzzle solve much harder than needed.
Very good and smooth puzzle, thoroughly enjoyable!
on 12. October 2026, 09:21 by BG03
It was only at the end I realised that I hadn't read the rules well enough. Black is also a constraining colour! I solved without that for 95% of the way and found it 6* difficult. The remaining 5% was actually unsolvable without that bit!
--thank you for solving the puzzle. I'm going to leave your comment visible, even if it gives a hint to other solvers. I expected people to see red, black, and blue as three colors of clues.
on 7. October 2026, 19:48 by GeorgeTheToad2
50 minutes for me, I got tripped up by the negative constraint at the end and thought there were two solutions. However, I think there is only one now.
on 7. October 2026, 19:45 by tryote
Fantastic puzzle! Very satisfying the whole way through with no ambiguity. Thank you!! (39 min)
on 7. October 2026, 16:08 by palletpusher
Excellent puzzle: interestingly monotonic difficulty curve, with an easy break-in and increasingly challenging region building. Just under two hours of thoroughly joyful solving for me. Thank you for sharing this lovely puzzle, Md88keys!
