Watch Your Back!
(Published on 9. August 2026, 05:28 by pmays123)
Watch Your Back!, by pmays123
- Normal 6x6 sudoku rules apply.
- POINTING CAGES: If a cell X "points to" cell Y then X and Y are in the same row/column and the digit in X is the distance from X to Y (e.g., if r1c1 pointed to r1c4 then r1c1=3). Each cell in a cage points to a cell in a different cage than itself, and no two caged cells point to the same cell.
- DYNAMIC FOG: Fog covers some cells in the grid. Correctly placed digits may or may not clear some fog. No guessing is needed.
Link to Puzzle: SudokuPad
I hope you enjoy the puzzle! Feedback is greatly appreciated. Good luck, and have a great day! :)
Solution code: Column 3 from top to bottom
Comments
on 10. August 2026, 16:41 by pmays123
Difficulty re-estimate
on 9. August 2026, 16:35 by fishsaltyak
Made no progress in 30 min. Guess I'm missing something.
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Hello! There is a key implication of the rules (that I tried to hint at with the title) needed to break-in. How many caged cells aren't pointed at by another cage? I hope this helps! :D
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With the fog, I can not see any way to rule that out. Any cell with fog could have a cage.
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Even if the number of caged cells isn't known, we know that all caged cells point to another caged cell and no two caged cells point to the same cell. For any number of caged cells, is it possible with these rules for a caged cell not to be pointed at?
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Again, I'm going to say that I do not see a cell where that's certain. Either I'm not understanding the rules, or there is more to the rules than written.
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Sorry for the confusion. Here's how I think through the break-in: Say there are 20 caged cells in the grid but only 19 caged cells pointed at, this means that a cell is pointed at by more than one cell (breaking the stated rule). We can generalize this case and deduce that every caged cell in the grid (regardless of how many there are) must be pointed at by another caged cell. Now, think about what cells r2c3 can point at, what cells r3c6 can point at, what cells can point to r2c3, and what cells can point to r3c6. Sudoku should then reveal something.
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I'm going to bow out of this. Unfortunately, I do not understand it. I've pencil marked all the obvious pointing cells and even brute forced what I could to try to find something to break in, but I can not. The fact that every cell under the fog could be it's own, single cell cage, makes it impossible for me to find the break in. Like I said, it may just be something that I can not understand.
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Thanks for giving the puzzle a shot at least! The last tip I'll mention (in case you ever wish to try again) is to focus more on the possible places that can point to the given caged cells since we know they must be pointed to (for example, if r2c3 was pointed at by r2c1, then r2c1=2. Personally, I would then make a little '2' corner pencilmark r2c1). It is quite challenging to ask the right question, but no step should require brute forcing down a possible path. Have a good day!
