Ranked Quads
(Published on 22. February 2026, 17:01 by marty_sears)
Rules:
Normal 6x6 sudoku rules apply.
QUAD CLUES: A digit appearing in a circle must appear in the surrounding 2x2 area. (If a digit appears twice in the circle it must appear twice in the 2x2 area.)
RANKED QUADS: The 25 2x2 areas in the grid each contain a 4-digit number (read in normal reading order from top left to bottom right.) If all these 4-digit numbers are ranked from lowest to highest (with rank 1 being the lowest and rank 25 being the highest), the number in a circle also gives the rank of its surrounding 2x2 area. All the 4-digit numbers are different, so there are no tied ranks.
Solution code: Rank 15
Comments
on 16. March 2026, 13:01 by MikeMeech
Very fun!
on 9. March 2026, 08:12 by Leodesian
Wow! Not a long or complex puzzle, but so enjoyable. I'm new to the ruleset and the variety of deductions that become available as you enter each digit is really rewarding. Thanks!
on 8. March 2026, 07:08 by psams
No repeats in the ranked quads was an interesting global constraint ... tempting to extract some implications such as how many valid 6x6 grids would satisfy this requirement vs. all valid 6x6 grids.
on 2. March 2026, 13:14 by QuozBat
Great puzzle. Very enjoyable.
Not that I think you should change it, but I found it surprisingly hard to figure which is rank 15 ^_^"
on 28. February 2026, 03:48 by marajade
What a lovely puzzle. Very accessible and not nearly as challenging as it looks at first glance, while it really shows off this ruleset as it showcases so many different little deductions that are possible with it. A pleasure to solve from beginning to end!
on 25. February 2026, 22:01 by ThymePass
I really enjoyed this rule-set!
<3 6x6
Thanks Marty and Aqjhs :)
on 23. February 2026, 07:17 by Klausku
I‘ve done a few full rank puzzles lately so this minimalistic one flowed surprisingly smoothly for me. Brilliant again. Thanks Marty.
on 23. February 2026, 04:37 by hamosphere
My brain hurts!
on 23. February 2026, 03:07 by Clementi
Incredible how you keep coming up new rules and contraint types with virtually every new puzzle. So impressive.
on 23. February 2026, 02:31 by ThePedallingPianist
I see you're joining the dark side, with your full rank and impressive minimalism... I love it!
on 23. February 2026, 00:04 by Atticus837
What a cool idea! It never ceases to amaze me how you're able to take an idea like this that seems like it would be hard to set restrictively, and then not only make a great puzzle out of it but also perfectly set up use of all of the available logical tricks once and nothing more.
It's like you've created a setup that has its own unique and interesting logical quirks to discover, and taking us on a guided tour of what you've found.
Keep up the good work!
on 22. February 2026, 21:19 by BG03
90% rating at the time of writing is unjustifiably low for this wonderfully crafted puzzle
on 22. February 2026, 21:13 by wuc
Awesome.
on 22. February 2026, 20:27 by mscha
Tricky, but doable, once you figure out the logic. Nice!
on 22. February 2026, 20:26 by Fool on Hill
Beautifully done. I've no idea how you set this - with clues on one side of the grid only.
on 22. February 2026, 19:42 by eladv
whow, that was great! Somehow, my favorite part was disambiguating the last deadly pattern. But really, everything (including the big a-ha moment) was amazing.
on 22. February 2026, 17:53 by richcard
Reading the rules and looking at the grid, I couldn't believe this was a 2*. But things kept clicking into place - it's amazing what you've done with so little.
This might be a me-problem, but I wasn't sure whether the rules meant that, for example, the 22 needed two 2s in the cells around it.
Marty: thanks, I've added a clarification.
