Pop Goes The World
(Published on 16. June 2026, 23:45 by EdTheAlchemist)
- Normal Sudoku rules apply.
- Place one trigger cell in each row, column and 3 by 3 box. Each of these trigger cells is a ‘popped’ cell. All cells orthogonally adjacent to a popped cell also pop if they have a smaller digit than (any of) the adjacent popped cell(s). Continue until no more cells pop.
- Bubbles (circles) are never in cells which are popped and count the number of (up to 8, including diagonals) surrounding cells which are popped.
- Pinpricks (inequalities) point to the smaller of the two digits they separate, and always separate a cell which has been popped from a cell which hasn't.
Solution code: Row 4
Comments
on 23. June 2026, 20:59 by MartinR
Nice puzzle, the popping adjacent cells did remind me of the infection series by gdc
on 20. June 2026, 23:52 by EdTheAlchemist
Clarified wording (thanks to Pi Guy for the suggestion!)
on 19. June 2026, 04:50 by Clipper
This was an awesome puzzle and had many different types of great deductions.
on 17. June 2026, 18:04 by kublai
:)
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Alchemist says: You knew it was coming!
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Kublai: I forgot my preplanned comment...
Hey what puzzle are we on? The third!
on 17. June 2026, 16:44 by Chaossudokusplease
Wow, what a fun ruleset and great execution! At first glance I wasn’t even sure where to start but it really started to click into place and then it was a really fun challenging puzzle. I would love to do more like that!
on 17. June 2026, 12:23 by Dcs
Really cool ruleset and execution!
on 17. June 2026, 08:56 by StefanSch
Nice!
