Artisanal Sudoku, Volume 157

1. Traverse

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.

• Cages: the sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner, and digits cannot repeat within a cage.

• Thermometers: digits on thermometers increase from the bulb.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 3/10

Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded

New to variant sudoku? Check out these beginner-friendly guides to killer cages and other popular rulesets.

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Just wanted to mention that SudokuCon tickets are available at the “early bird” price of $100 for one more week—until January 13—at which point the price will increase to $140. Looking forward to seeing you all in Boston, April 3-6 😁

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2. Nordique

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.

• Palindromes: gray lines are palindromes, which contain the same sequence of digits in either direction.

• Quadruple circles: a digit inside a white circle must appear in at least one of the four cells surrounding that circle.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad

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3. Calibration

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.

• 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.

• Renban lines: purple lines contain a non-repeating set of consecutive digits in any order.

• Digits in cells with a shaded square are even.

• Digits in cells separated by an X sum to 10.

• Very rough difficulty estimates: 9/10, 7/10

Play online: SudokuPad

Extra clues: SudokuPad

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Prime Week Bonus Puzzle!

No idea why I decided to call this one Sack Lunch, and I suspect I couldn’t have explained it at the time either, but, hey, making a lot of puzzles means naming a lot of puzzles, and sometimes you just have to go with it (could say the same about Calibration, to be honest). Anyway, if you like this—or want to jump straight to something more challenging—here’s a 9x9 with the same ruleset. Enjoy!

• Chaos construction: divide the grid into six orthogonally-connected six-cell regions, and place the digits 1-6 once in each row, column, and region.

• The sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle. Arrows do not cross region borders (i.e. a circle and all cells on all connected arrows must be part of the same region).

• A digit in a circle (including an arrow circle) indicates the total number of cells in the same region that can be seen orthogonally in all directions, including itself.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad

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Some other puzzles I enjoyed this week:

• Renban x Region Sum, by psninn

• Crosshair, by Scott Strosahl

• Gigglywhirl, by Tallcat

Honorable mention to The Secret Squared, by BenTen, and Mean Quartet, by Marty Sears, both of which were on my list to recommend until their recent appearances on Cracking the Cryptic. (Much of the point of this section is to help spread the word about puzzles folks might not otherwise be aware of, so it kind of defeats the purpose to recommend puzzles that were just featured on the most prominent platform in the game. But still, those are absolutely worth checking out if you haven’t solved them already.)

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This week’s meta-description:
In which I very nearly pulled out the 10/10 difficulty rating for the second time ever (but, ultimately, settled on 9/10).

For premium subscribers, hints and two more bonus puzzles are below.