Pick-up Sticks (Red)
(Published on 18. June 2025, 00:49 by marty_sears)
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Two adjacent cells along a red stick must contain one even digit and one odd digit.
A stick always has a lower total (the sum of its digits) than any stick which lies on top of it.
Solution code: Column 1 reading downwards
Comments
on 22. June 2025, 03:57 by Jackler
It took me 2 attempts. First one, about 30 minutes in I was in a situation with endless bifurcate options and I don't like that. I tried again then found my initial very stupid mistake. So 22 minutes later it all solved smooth, no bifurcation needed, luckily.
Well done and way harder than you would expect it to be.
on 18. June 2025, 22:04 by Klausku
That was quite challenging, took me over 90 minutes. Again a brilliant construction with very nice logic. Thanks Marty. Can‘t wait to see a green Mikadoku.
on 18. June 2025, 18:49 by npinguy
This is the first one in the stick series that did not spark joy. Had to bifurcate several times :(
Marty: sorry to hear that. As usual though, no bifurcation is needed
npin: Absolutely, shouldn't have implied it was required. Just found this one too hard without it in 2 places where after I caused the contradiction I couldn't see an alternate way to have deduced it...
npin: final edit - i decided to try it again and spotted the logic deductions i missed!
on 18. June 2025, 13:31 by mscha
More mikadoku!
Very nice, as always. Opening took me a while, but I didn't get stuck in the midgame, like on the last one.
(@dkfan9: it counts on both sticks.)
on 18. June 2025, 13:03 by dkfan9
Are overlapping cells, such as the board's center cell, on both sticks or only the top stick?
Marty: both; a digit is included in the sum of any stick passing through that cell
on 18. June 2025, 11:59 by Franjo
Picking up these red ones was a bit trickier than expected (3* for me), but again a funny and beautiful episode. Thank you very much for creating and sharing. And now I’m hoping for - well, what’s the color of hope?
on 18. June 2025, 02:50 by Mr. Happy
I'm loving the pick up sticks series. Very fun!
