Artisanal Sudoku, Volume 173

1. Cavity

• 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.

• Digits in cells separated by a V sum to 5.

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

• 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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2. Broken Square

• 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.

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

• The digits in the cell with a shaded circle is odd.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded

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3. Muskogee

• 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.

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

• Very rough difficulty estimates: 7/10, 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad

Extra clues: SudokuPad

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Prime Week Bonus Puzzle!

I’m calling this one Dimensionality, and I didn’t necessarily set out to make an alt version, but I decided while writing hints that it was a little tougher than I wanted, so I added some black dots. But I think the tougher version (shown below) is still solid, so, no reason not to link to both.

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

• A digit inside a white circle appears in at least one of the four cells surrounding that circle *or* indicates the number of regions that occupy at least one of those cells (or both).

• Digits in cells separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio, and all dots are on region borders.

• Very rough difficulty estimates: 8/10, 6/10

Play online: SudokuPad

Extra clues: SudokuPad

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Some other puzzles I enjoyed this week:

• Visible Arrows, by Md88keys

• Incantation, by Gerhard1963

• Disassembly Line, by Skeptical Mario

Also, I was very happy to contribute a puzzle to the sandwich sudoku pack that BremSter released last week. The pack is available here (it’s hosted on Patreon, but it’s free to everyone), and you can also check out solve videos of my puzzle by BremSter and Timotab.

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This week’s meta-description:
Featuring a 6x6 chaos construction with a weird twist on quad circles.

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