Puzzle No. 468 : Skyscraper Sudoku [Daily League]

First, a note about PDFs of previous weeks. Christoph Seeliger of Germany has kindly taken up PDF responsibilities with slight changes to how Tom used to do it. I’ll start linking to the PDFs from week 47 onwards, but 37-46 are all on our Facebook group.

Remember that you can solve the puzzles from the League online on the Sudokucup Guest League page with a 24h delay.

I realize I posted a Skyscraper variant just 2 weeks ago, but this is mainly a “reject” from a set I provided. It is rejected for being too hard, or to be more accurate, requiring too much non-Sudoku logic. I agree with this assessment, and still think its a nice Sudoku to solve. So here. (Yeah, I’ve gotten into the habit of saying “so here” now)

Rules for Sudoku. Additionally, each number in the grid represents the height of the skyscraper in each cell. The digits outside the grid indicate the number of skyscrapers seen from the corresponding direction.

Rated – Hard.

Enjoy!

P468

Puzzle No. 462, 463 : Double Skyscrapers, Crazy Pavement

In Bangalore right now to conduct the Bengaluru Brain Games’ Sudoku and Puzzle events in about 2 hours time. Quickly making this post before leaving.

These are more of the WPC practice. Crazy Pavement is easy without much going on. Double Skyscrapers has the non-symmetric circle because I forgot the converse rule when I created it for practice. It is solvable without that and without the converse rule, unfortunately.

Rules (as in WPC IB) –

For 462 (Serbian Snacks, Round 7) – Enter a digit from 1 to 6 (1 to 5 in the example) into each cell so that each row and column contains each number exactly once. Each digit in the grid represents the height of a building and the clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction. Taller buildings block smaller ones from being seen. In addition, digits in cells in the outer grid with a circle provide similar Skyscrapers clues for the inner grid for a horizontal or vertical (but not diagonal) direction. All such cells are marked with a circle.

For 463 (Dutch Delight, Round 4) – Paint some cells in the grid so that for each region either all its cells are painted or none at all. Numbers outside the grid indicate the number of painted cells in that row/column.

Enjoy!

P462

P463

Puzzle No. 459 : Odd/Even-View Skyscrapers [Daily League]

Back after a forced week long absence due to schedules. I’ll write a bit more tomorrow with some puzzles.

Remember that you can solve the puzzles from the League online on the Sudokucup Guest League page with a 24h delay.

Rules for Sudoku. Additionally, each number in the grid represents the height of the skyscraper in each cell. The digits above and to the left of the grid indicate the number of odd skyscrapers seen from the corresponding direction (considering even digits as transparent). The digits below and to the right of the grid indicate the number of even skyscrapers seen from the corresponding direction (considering odd digits as transparent).

Rated – Medium.

Enjoy!

P459

Puzzle No. 451 : Inside Skyscrapers Sudoku [Daily League]

This post has been scheduled to appear on Tuesday evening. If it appears before/after that, blame WordPress 😛 Anyway, this is a Sudoku I had written for Team India’s practice, and since as of today the relevant round will have been done in the morning, it can be shared to the general public. The Sudoku is quite challenging. I like how it turned out.

Remember that you can solve the puzzles from the League online on the Sudokucup Guest League page with a 24h delay.

Rules for Sudoku. Consider each number to be the height of a building. Digits within cells with arrows indicate how many buildings can be seen when looking in that direction from the focal cells (taller buildings conceal buildings smaller or of equal height behind them).

Rated – Hard.

Enjoy!

P351

IPC Preview – Practice, Solving Tips, Links

Update: Fixed the typo in Pentomino Kakuro. New PDF uploaded. No other change.

Update: There is an erratum published on the IPC site that says the 2×2 restriction applies to Happy Dots too. Since the practice puzzle in the PDF still gives a nice practice for placing the dots and forming regions, and only uses 2×2 regions minimally, it stays the same in the PDF. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. 

If you’re having trouble with some puzzles, seeing/adding to the discussion in the comments might help. (This also serves as a spoiler alert for those who want to work on the puzzles without help)

Right, took a while, but we’re finally there. If you’re still not aware, the Indian Puzzle Championship will be held on 7th July. Here are our (me and Swaroop) best efforts, with the main goal being to try to help the newer participants.

This PDF features –

1. Practice puzzles for B1, B2, C, D, E2, F1, F2, G2, I1, I2, J1, J2, K1, K2, L1, L2, M2.

2. Beginner-level solving tips for all the puzzles in the set.

3. Solutions to all the puzzles in the set.

4.  Links to other practice material, pattern guides, and other technical tips.

Link to PDF – Practice

Enjoy!

Puzzle No. 368 : Outside or Skyscraper Sudoku [Daily League]

This variant is quite tricky in general, but I’ve tried to make at least some of it relatively obvious. Either way, I like the combination, and I like how it turned out.

Rules – Follow regular Sudoku rules. Additionally, the clues outside are at least one of

1. Outside clues – The digit must be placed in one of the first 3 cells in that direction.

2. Skyscraper clues – Taking 1-9 as skyscrapers of increasing heights, 9 being the biggest, the clue shows how many skyscrapers can be seen from that direction. Bigger skyscrapers block smaller ones.

Enjoy!

P368

Puzzle No. 264,265 : A Skyscraper Sudoku and a Skyscraper Pentomino

I have a new gmail id! I have updated my About the blog section with this and my facebook address. Not sure exactly why, but approachability is the vague reasoning I guess. I shall also soon add a few more links as my favorites. I’ve been meaning to do so for a loooong time, and should finally get around to that during the weekend.

I didn’t want to use the obvious Puzzle complement like a Fillomino Skyscrapers, or Tapa Skyscrapers, I wanted to try something new (at least, something I haven’t solved before). However, I liked the Tapa Skyscrapers idea as a base, so tried it on other genres. I eventually landed up on Pentominos. This seemed to work pretty well. The ending became a bit difficult but I think it goes smoothly enough.

As for the Sudoku, I was and still am pretty sad about needing the 4 digits But overall I guess it worked out well. I think the difficulty is around medium.

For 264 : Follow regular Sudoku rules. Additionally, each number in the grid represents the height of the skyscraper in each cell. The digits outside the grid indicate the number of skyscrapers seen from the corresponding direction.

For 265 : Place 12 different pentominos in the grid (as shown in the bank). Rotations and reflections are allowed. Pentominos can’t touch each other even diagonally, and cannot be placed on cells marked with “x”. Numbers outside the grid show the number of separate shaded-cell segments visible in that direction. A segment of length n, is taken as a skyscraper of height n. Skyscrapers of length n can block visibility of other skyscrapers of length n and below (which obviously means length n can repeat in a row/column).

P264

P265