Quintuple Circles (6x6 chaos)
(Published on 2. November 2026, 22:30 by jwsinclair)
Quintuple Circles, by James Sinclair
Divide the grid into six orthogonally-connected six-cell regions, and place the digits 1-6 once in each row, column, and region.
A digit inside a white circle appears in one of the four cells surrounding that circle *or* indicates the number of regions that occupy at least one of those cells (or both).
SudokuPad
For more chaos, I highly recommend the recently-released Chaotic Construction pack by Sudoku Skunkworks (organized by Myxo).
The pack includes about 40 puzzles, contributed by a long list of very talented setters. Most of the puzzles are grouped into pairs, with a smaller, more approachable one to demonstrate the ruleset, followed by a larger, tougher version. (This puzzle was made with the pack in mind, but isn't included in it because I couldn't find a good way to adapt the ruleset to a larger grid.)
Solution code: row four, with a dash ("-") indicating every region border
Comments
on 9. November 2026, 14:02 by dumediat
Fantastic break-in, and then a very enjoyable solve after that. Thank you!
on 5. November 2026, 13:32 by amirs
Beautiful puzzle and trickier than expected. I got the break-in quite quickly, but still had to start over 3-4 times after getting confused by the weird quad/quintuple circles :)
on 5. November 2026, 00:58 by QuiltyAsCharged
Great and pretty tricky puzzle! I imagine a 9x9 version would be 5* difficulty if you had found a way to construct one.
on 3. November 2026, 21:03 by emoney1374
Phenomenal puzzle!
on 3. November 2026, 19:16 by Snookerfan
Very nice! Fairly easy to get started, maybe I was lucky to spot the right thing quickly, but it had a sting near the end. Thanks
on 3. November 2026, 18:06 by Chilly
Sweet break-in. Actually seemed easier than I thought it would be.
on 3. November 2026, 12:52 by marcmees
looked fairly easy but it wasn't. Nice break in. Thanks
on 3. November 2026, 01:57 by Myxo
Amazing! :)
on 3. November 2026, 00:02 by PrissyP
That was very smooth and very cool. Loved every step
