Artisanal Sudoku, Volume 45

1. Hedge Maze

• Fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each.

• The sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

• Digits in cells separated by a white dot are consecutive.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 3/10

Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles | unshaded

(I don’t think this ever had a chance of being challenging as an actual maze, but I still think it’s a nice puzzle.)

New to killer sudoku? Click here for a beginner-friendly guide.

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In appreciation of the most important number in killer sudoku, there’s no paywall this week. If you’re not a premium subscriber, consider this a preview of the extra content you could be getting every Monday. I hope you like it! And, if you can afford $5/month, I hope you’ll consider signing up. It’s not just about the hints and bonus puzzles (and full access to the archive), it’s about supporting content that brings you joy. And the more support I have, the more time and effort I’m able to put right back into making quality puzzles.

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2. Postcards

• Fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each.

• The sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

• The sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle. These digits can repeat if allowed by other rules.

• Along green lines, digits must differ from their neighbors by at least 5.

• Purple lines contain a set of non-repeating consecutive digits in any order.

• Digits in cells with a shaded square must be even.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 6/10

Play online: SudokuPad | F-Puzzles

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Real quick, I wanted to plug the Kickstarter for Cracking the Cryptic’s second greatest hits book. The campaign ends this Friday, November 18. It’s already funded, but there are still stretch goals to unlock and cool perks for pledging.

One of those perks is that backers get to vote on which puzzles are included in the book. Lots of great nominees, including, ahem, two of mine: Six Pack and Skyscraper Miracle. But if you want to vote, you’ll have to become a backer before the November 18 deadline (the poll will remain open for a few more weeks, though). This has been the only context in which a sudoku newsletter will encourage you to vote.

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3. Wing Nut

• Fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each.

• Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

• The sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle.

• Digits in cells with a shaded square must be even.

• Very rough difficulty estimates: 9/10, 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles | unshaded

Extra clues: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles | unshaded

(I’ve shied away from giving a puzzle a 10/10 difficulty rating, I guess because I feel like that should be saved for something truly monstrous. But this one may be a solid 9.5. Or maybe it’s not as tough as I think? Either way, I hope you give it a shot. There are several hints below if you need help, and there’s always the alternate version.)

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4. That’s [redacted] in the Corner

• Fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each.

• The grid is covered with fog, except for two initial light sources. Digits also act as light sources and, when placed correctly, illuminate the cells around them. Once the fog is cleared, any clues will look the same as they would in a normal puzzle.

• The sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

• The sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle. These digits can repeat if allowed by other rules.

• Along green lines, digits must differ from their neighbors by at least 5.

• Digits in cells with a gray square must be even.

• Digits in cells separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad

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5. Factory Floor

• Fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each.

• The sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

• On thermometers, digits increase from the bulb.

• Purple lines contain a set of non-repeating consecutive digits in any order.

• Digits in cells separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 7/10

Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded | F-Puzzles | unshaded

(This is easier to see in SudokuPad, but there are two separate purple lines in the middle of the grid, not one long line. Also, if you want an added challenge, ignore the dots in rows three and seven, which were late additions. The puzzle should be solvable without them, but damned if I could remember how to do it.)

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*Literally nobody has been here for all 45. I had zero subscribers when I published Volume 1.

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Hints

Postcards

1. The three digits in the arrow circles must sum to 26, which means they must consist of an 8 and two 9s. But r6c3 cannot contain a 9 because that would make it impossible to place 9 in box five.

2. There must be two high digits (6 through 9) on the German whisper line in box one. Meanwhile, the digits in box one that are not in the 23-cage must sum to 22, which means they must be either 5-8-9 or 6-7-9. But if those digits are 6-7-9, there would not be two high digits available to put on the whisper.

Wing Nut

1. Each of the arrow circles are connected to a(t least one) three-cell arrow, which means the digit in the circle must be 6 or greater.

2. Consider whether any two arrow circles can contain the same digit. Obviously, it would have to be a pair that does not share a row or column. But r3c3 and r7c7 cannot be the same because the one-cell arrows would force that digit to appear twice in box five. And r3c7 and r7c3 cannot be the same because it would make that digit impossible to place in either of the cages.

3. The circle in r3c7 is connected to two three-cell arrows (which must both contain three different digits), and one cell on the box three arrow sees every cell on the box two arrow. This means there must be (at least) two ways for three digits to sum to the digit in r3c7, which therefore cannot be 6 or 7.

4. There are five digits on arrows in box four, and the minimum sum of those digits is 15 (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5). By arrow logic, the digits in the circles in column three must have the same sum, so their minimum is also 15. Similar logic applies in box eight for the circles in row seven.
   But, one of those circles must contain a 6, and another must contain a 7 (since r3c7 can contain neither 6 nor 7). Wherever the 6 is, it must share its row or column with a 9, so that the five-cell cluster it contributes to can reach the minimum sum of 15. And the 6 cannot share its row or column with the 7 because their sum is just 13. So there must be a 9 in r7c3, with a 67-pair in r3c3 and r7c7.

5. With the 9 placed in r7c3, consider what can go on the connected two-cell arrow extending up into box four. It cannot be 1+8 or 2+7 because 1 and 2 must be on the three-cell arrow in column two. And it cannot be 4+5 because that would eliminate both options for the three-cell arrow in box two (which must now sum to 8).

That’s [redacted] in the Corner

1. If you’ve watched even a handful of Cracking the Cryptic videos, you can probably guess what [redacted] will turn out to be once the fog clears. To get there, note that the cage in box one must extend into r3c2, and it must stop there because a 6-cage cannot contain more than three cells. So the cage must contain 1, 2, and 3, with 1 and 2 on the black dot and 3 in r3c2.
   In the other corner, the two-cell 14-cage must contain 6+8, because neither 5 nor 9 can be on a black dot. And 6 cannot be in r8c9 because the sequence of dots would force another 6 into r9c8.

   From there, filling in a few more clues should give you enough information to get the digit in r1c9.

2. If you have trouble seeing how to start making progress in the bottom left part of the grid, consider where 3 can go in box five, and then in box four (keeping in mind that if a whisper line disappears into the fog, it must extend at least one more cell in that direction).

3. Consider where 8 can go in box four.

Factory Floor

1. The two long renbans occupy every cell in box five, which means one of them must contain a 1 and one must contain a 9. And both must contain a 5.

2. Consider what can go in r3c3 and r7c7. Since digits can’t repeat on a renban line, the digits in those cells must appear on the other line in box five, meaning those digits are on both lines. And since one line contains low digits and the other contains high digits, the shared digits must be from the middle of the number line, where the two lines overlap. But a two-cell 14-cage can never contain a 4, so the shared digits must be 5 and 6, and the low digits in box five must be on the six-cell renban.