Pandemonium (Chaos Construction)
(Eingestellt am 20. September 2025, 06:00 Uhr von Sotehr)
Sudoku: Chaos Construction Sudoku rules apply; place the digits 1-9 once in every row, column, and constructed region.
Torus: The grid is toroidal; i.e. each edge of the grid is considered to be adjacent to its opposite edge. For example, r1c1 is considered orthogonally adjacent to both r9c1 and r1c9. The main 9x9 grid has been outlined and clues of each edges orthogonal neighbors copied for your convenience. (Only digits in the main 9x9 grid are required for solution check.)
Arrows: Each arrow cell must be in a different region than the first cell seen in its indicated direction. (For example, if there's an arrow in r4c3 pointing east, then r4c4 must be a different region than r4c3.)
Black Arrows: A cell with a black arrow counts the number of unique regions seen along its indicated direction, including its own region. If a cell contains multiple black arrows, each arrow is counted independently. (Note: Black Arrows have no shaft.)
Teal Arrows: A cell with a teal arrow is the sum of all digits in a line of only the next region seen in the arrows indicated direction. (Note: Teal Arrows have the shorter shaft.)
Magenta Arrows: A cell with a magenta arrow is the sum of the first digit seen of the next two distinct regions in the arrows indicated direction, excluding its own region. (Note: Magenta Arrows have the longer shaft.)
NOTES
I started setting variant Sudoku about a year ago. To celebrate that, I chose this week's Setting Saturday prompt: to set a sequel to one of your earliest puzzles or find one of your early unfinished puzzles and finish it. This is a little of both; my first Chaos Construction was Chaos Arrows and the rulesets share many similarities, but this was also an early unfinished puzzle that I started setting late October of last year. It was inspired by both ThePedallingPianist's Hysteria and heliopolix's Delirium.
These rules can be a lot to take in, so I did set a small 5x5 Example Puzzle, to ease you into the ruleset. (The solution of which can be found here.)
Many thanks to everyone who helped test this, including aqjhs, heliopolix, earthpuzzles and Roger Wrightshoe on the CtC Discord server.
Lösungscode: Row 7 of the main 9x9 grid, with dashes for region borders.
Kommentare
Gestern, 18:48 Uhr von War
Excellent puzzle, fantastic use of chaos construction, great challenge, one of the arrow colors is very powerful and makes the puzzle quite approachable when you understand it.
Gestern, 16:59 Uhr von BloodFalcon
Perhaps it's just me failing to interpret it, but the ruling on the Teal arrow states it sums the digits in the indicated direction of the first region seen, it doesn't state excluding itself so in theory it would just be counting it's own regions cells in that direction every time since all arrows point to 9 cells which includes itself - itself being the first cell seen, unless stated otherwise.
Since the general arrow ruling states 'first cell pointed at' as opposed to 'first cell seen', this also makes me think teal always counts it's own region, since that is where the arrow is, it can then only ever count 1 cell in it's own region without breaking the count, have I understood this correct?
Any further clarity would be much appreciated, thanks!
- The teal arrow will always be summing the digits from a different region than itself, sorry if that was confusing in any way. If you look at the example puzzle solution, r5c1's north teal arrow points at r4c1 and r3c1 before it hits a region border, and is their sum. (4 = 1 + 3) You can think of it like a normal arrow, with the circle in r5c1 and a straight shaft that goes until it hits a region border. Hope that helps. - Sotehr
I see! Foolish of me to not notice the example puzzle, thanks a lot for the help :)
am 21. September 2025, 18:32 Uhr von earthpuzzles
Kept me on my toes through the very end! Fantastic setting.
am 21. September 2025, 02:19 Uhr von Elliptical
Haven't tried the 9x9 yet. I finished the 5x5 and it was at least 3 stars for me.
am 20. September 2025, 18:38 Uhr von henrypijames
When you say "every arrow sees nine cells", do you mean nine consecutive cells starting immediately after the arrow, or some randomly placed nine cells in the direction, skipping over other random cells?
- By the nature of the Torus, each arrow will only see nine consecutive unique cells, including itself, in the direction it's pointed. (And then those nine cells repeat infinitely.)
Hope that answers your question. - Sotehr
>>>
What I meant is that "nine cells" doesn't necessarily mean nine distinct cells - e. g. it could also be the same three cell three times over each.
