1. Aisle Seats
Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.
Killer cages: the sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner.
Arrows: the sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle, and these digits can repeat if allowed by other rules.
Very rough difficulty estimate: 3/10
Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles
New to variant sudoku? Check out these beginner-friendly guides to killer cages and other popular rulesets.
Thanks so much to Cracking the Cryptic for two features in the last few days! First, Seventy, which is a puzzle that I published on my Logic Masters Deutschland page because I decided it was too tough to publish here, but, hey, feel free to try it and prove me wrong 😁. And then, just before press time, Quarters, from Volume 114, showed up on the channel. Both videos are a lot of fun, and, as always, it’s an enormous honor to see one of my puzzles solved by Simon or Mark.
Also, I wanted to clean something up from last week, because I realized belatedly that it probably isn’t a great look to refer to my own puzzles—even the ones I think most highly of—as “exceptional”. My defense is that I meant it only in relation to my other puzzles (i.e. those puzzles are literally exceptions compared to my usual quality), but still, I wish I had chosen a different phrasing.
2. Satellites
Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.
Digits cannot repeat on the indicated diagonal.
Killer cages: the sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner.
Quadruple circles: a digit inside a white circle must appear in one of the four cells surrounding that circle.
Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10
Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles
3. Capricorn
Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.
Killer cages: the sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner (if given), and digits cannot repeat within a cage.
Arrows: the sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle, and these digits can repeat if allowed by other rules.
Digits in cells separated by a white dot are consecutive.
Very rough difficulty estimates: 8/10, 6/10
Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles
Extra clues: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles
Thanks for subscribing to Artisanal Sudoku! Feedback is always appreciated, just leave a comment, reach out on Twitter X, or reply to this email. If you liked these puzzles, you probably know someone else who’d like them too, so please spread the word. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle, please reach out to me on Discord or reply to this email. And if you want to try more of my puzzles—including several that are tougher than the ones you’ll find here—check out my page on Logic Masters Deutschland.
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Very appreciative of the nice response to last week’s post, and grateful for the new subscribers brought in by the recent CtC features. Here’s hoping the puzzles live up to expectations…
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