Penthouse
(Published on 1. April 2025, 09:09 by marty_sears)
Rules:
SUDOKU: place the digits 1-9 once each in every row, column, and marked 3x3 box.
FOG: The grid is covered with fog. Entering correct digits may clear fog somewhere in the grid. No guessing is necessary.
PENTHOUSE: Five tetrominoes (shapes made of 4 orthogonally connected cells) have just moved into a large house with 12 pentominoes (shapes made of 5 orthogonally connected cells).
- No two characters are exactly the same shape (rotations and reflections count as the same, e.g. there is only one L tetromino.)
- There is also a pet cat called Ocho, who occupies just one cell.
- Fit all 18 occupants into the grid so that none of them overlap.
- Outlines of characters are shown with a thick black line.
- A small clue appearing anywhere within a character indicates the total sum of all the digits in that character.
- No two characters have the same total.
- Digits never repeat on a character.
PHOTOS: Around the grid are photos of some (not all) of the characters. Each photo shows a character as it appears in the grid, unreflected (i.e. photos are not mirrored.) It also shows one of its digits, with its correct orientation and position within the character. (Each character must be placed in the grid so that its given digit is up the right way.)
Solution code: Column 2 reading downwards
Comments
on 10. August 2025, 17:36 by fecske
Just WOW!
on 10. June 2025, 02:06 by Clementi
Another fantastic and unique puzzle. I've just come back to this after giving up on it first time round, and very glad I did. Really enjoyable.
on 22. May 2025, 23:35 by xardass
Absolute joy to solve!
on 9. May 2025, 21:36 by BenTen
I see what you did there with those 6s and 9s! Lucky you put the ears on your cat otherwise we wouldn't know which way round to put the centre digit!! ;)
That was an incredible puzzle, filled with many tricks, and a nice surpr-eyes at the end!
Thanks, that was fun.
on 4. May 2025, 11:50 by LehanLehan
Sooo good))
on 25. April 2025, 11:06 by Rossobroc
Really nice. I had much fun solving it. It always drives me crazy when in a fog puzzle no cells are cleared. Then I think I'm on a wrong path, but I wasn't. Thanks.
on 24. April 2025, 01:45 by fitzie
can infinity be a valid digit? let me check the rules again. :)
on 13. April 2025, 04:28 by ninjamunk
Wow, really great puzzle! A very Marty Sears experience :)
Was stuck for a while, because I missed one line in the rules.
Marty: Much of this experience was Lorena's work :)
on 10. April 2025, 09:07 by TheNineElements
Solve Time: 60:48
I rated this 3/5 difficulty.
Really great, creative, and enjoyable puzzle!
Most of the logic was reasonably approachable, though several of the steps were hard to spot and the ruleset was tricky to get used to (at first).
It took me maybe 5-10 minutes before I got "comfortable" with the rules, but once my progress began picking up the remainder of the solve was enjoyable and smooth. This puzzle had a lot of "elements" (contributing to a longer solve time), and I enjoyed how it felt like solving several smaller puzzles within a larger one - breaking apart the solve into several "phases".
There were so many brilliant and creative "tricks" in the puzzle, but my favorite aspect may be how the solver must "rotate" the images of the pent-/tetr-ominoes to be able to use the digit clues (and the logic arising from that).
Overall this was a very fun puzzle, and I thoroughly enjoyed solving it. Thank you for sharing and bringing me another hour of great entertainment!
on 10. April 2025, 08:36 by rubencubed
:D
on 9. April 2025, 11:33 by Azukay
Fun puzzle that felt very logical and flowing, my first ever 3 star
on 9. April 2025, 03:31 by mscha
Oof...
Took me a week (715 minutes according to Sudokupad), but I finally finished it.
Even after re-reading the description multiple times, I still missed that “no two characters have the same total”.
on 4. April 2025, 23:41 by TJ
After getting seriously stuck with 80% of the grid I finally went back to reading the rules and discovered the unique sum rule, that helped!
on 3. April 2025, 18:32 by Lorena
@jinkela114514 If you go to puzzle 000MJC here in Logic Masters, you will find a link to a blog post where pdyxs explains in more detail how to make the custom grid lines show above the fog.
on 3. April 2025, 13:06 by chrisj50
Clever concept & beautifully executed. I expect to see this on CTC in the near future!
on 2. April 2025, 14:28 by stickx
Thanks Marty and Lorena! I'm exhausted after that one, thoroughly enjoyed it though :)
I felt like I had to tip toe so carefully so as not to make a mistake.
on 2. April 2025, 09:56 by Elker
Loved it. Great collab of two very creative setters. Thanks for setting.
on 2. April 2025, 04:47 by Freegerator
Loved this one, thank you!
on 1. April 2025, 22:38 by MattJones
A work of genius, a whole load of fun and without question the puzzle I’m most proud of solving! Thank you both.
on 1. April 2025, 22:05 by superdog
Brilliant!
on 1. April 2025, 21:21 by Tank
Wow just wow, felt like multiple puzzles in one. Amazing as always, thank you Marty
on 1. April 2025, 16:19 by AngusWBA
Brilliant puzzle!!
on 1. April 2025, 14:25 by Lorena
*Clears throat while side-eyeing johncj
on 1. April 2025, 14:23 by davidemsa
Great puzzle, unsurprisingly.
on 1. April 2025, 14:04 by johncj
Great puzzle as always when it is made by Marty Sears. Thank you!
Marty: lots of this was by Lorena :)
on 1. April 2025, 13:17 by seh_bas
Beautiful as always Thx<3
on 1. April 2025, 12:52 by MattYDdraig
This was absolutely delightful.
