I’ll save the punchline for those who solve the puzzle. It’s the end of another month, and so time for another Gattai! This will also bring this run of Renban puzzles to close. For now. I do like Renban as a constraint, but I’ll try to mix things up for a while.
Sweet Caroline
Hands / Touching hands / Reaching out // Touching me, touching you // This is a Touchy Sudoku, which is a challenge to set and this version of this puzzle is a bit of a challenge to solve.
Nose Out of Joint
When I provide given digits, I often provide one of each, or all odd digits. This time, it’s the first nine digits of pi. They’re shifted a bit off in each row, because the Disjoint rule would otherwise not allow the double-1 and double-5.
Birds of a Feather
A “Baker’s Dozen” of Renban loops, scattered in a loose formation, none long enough to guarantee any digit, but with one of each digit given to steer by. I really enjoy this puzzle, and after a run of Quadruples puzzles, I think it’s time for a run of Renban puzzles
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Happy Birthday to the best mom I’ve ever had! Don’t worry, I gave no hints about the year you were born, nor how old young that makes you this year. No hints at all. And no, I’m not sure why I decided that’s the shape a cake should be. I hope you enjoy the puzzle nonetheless!
Celebrating Quads
The last time I published puzzles with Batterberg clues, it was in the lead-up to a family member’s birthday. Battenberg is cake, cake is for birthdays, it made sense at the time. I’m not even sure the family member in question had ever seen Battenberg cake in real life, at least at that point.
Continuing Quaducation
I keep coming back to Quadruples, powerful little circles providing information about four cages at once. Sometimes the information might only be about two digits, but it’s still information about the four digits touching the circle. Powerful clue, quads, and easy to understand, though they can be tricky to master.
Wings of Fancy
A butterfly? Some other insect? A more-symmetrical insect than exists in nature on this planet? They look like wings to me!
Crazy Czechers
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a puzzle with a selectively-negative constraint like this. The grid is marked like a 9x9 checkerboard, and only on shaded cells, there’s a “local global” constraint, so if a shaded cell is not marked as minimum nor as maximum, that’s important information.
No-Kill Shelter
I still don’t love some of the names of these variant constraints. “Little Killer” clues sit outside the grid and affect diagonal swathes of digits, but in this grid, I’ve kept a large area free of any influence, and colored it mint green. Which means that area is free from any clues, too. And yet the puzzle can be solved with just a bit of arithmetic.