Decompression [TSL][S1T6]
(Published on 18. July 2025, 23:22 by jwsinclair)
Decompression, by James Sinclair
The grid contains one or more 3x3 square boxes, which must be located. Each box contains the digits 1-9 once each, and digits cannot repeat in a row or column. Boxes may partially overlap, but no two boxes can entirely overlap, and no one cell can be in more than three boxes. Cells that are not in a box do not contain digits.
A cell's value is equal to its digit multiplied by the number of boxes in which it appears. A cell without a digit does not have a value (i.e. it is ignored for the purpose of the clues defined below).
Clues outside the grid give the sum of all values in the indicated direction.
Line clues and the cells on the inequality sign do not necessarily contain digits; if they do, the following rules apply:
Values along purple lines do not repeat, and are a set of consecutive numbers that can appear in any order.
Values along gold lines do not repeat, and no two values on the same line can be consecutive.
The inequality sign points toward the cell with the smaller value.
SudokuPad
This was my entry for Turn 6 of The Skunkworks League, where the prompt was to make a 9x9 puzzle using exactly six numbers (3, 6, 17, 17, 34, 45) as clues. Could I have improved on it now that I'm free to use any clues I want? Maybe! But I'm pretty happy with how everything fits together, so I just thought I'd put it out as-is.
Also, apologies to ThePedallingPianist, who published a puzzle with the same title (and a somewhat similar ruleset) earlier this year. Not trying to be unoriginal, but the portmanteau of deconstruction and compression is more fitting than anything else I could think of.
If you want more of my puzzles, check out Artisanal Sudoku, where I publish an approachable set of variant sudokus every week :)
Solution code: digits in row nine from left to right (ignoring any empty cells)
Comments
on 31. July 2025, 14:17 by peacherwu2
One of a kind!
on 22. July 2025, 07:17 by blueberrypug
If we determine that a specific cell on a line has a digit on it, does that imply that there's more than 1 value on that line? At least for the renban section, I wasn't sure if the ruleset implied that fact with the "set" part.
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Not necessarily. A "set" could just have one (at least, that's the intent of the rule, I agree that it could be worded more clearly)
on 20. July 2025, 22:21 by Fool on Hill
Is this the hardest puzzle James Sinclair has published? Surely not. It is not the worst either - in fact it is a fair and tricky challenge and deserves to be better appreciated.
on 20. July 2025, 08:48 by han233ing
Really cool idea!
on 19. July 2025, 15:10 by sorryimLate
Wow, that was a tough nut. I could always find questions to ask, but the amount of possibilities to be considered made this hard. Keeping track of and marking all the overlapping boxes was even harder. My brain could feel the compression of this amazing construction:) Thank you for sharing!
