winterer Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: HardBest completion time: 23:05Time on first attempt: 59:53Used 'valid marks' Used 'auto remove'
This was probably the hardest puzzle I ever played on this site.
At one point about half-way through, after searching for a way forward for ten minutes, I resorted to guessing, figuring that it would be faster to backtrack out of a dead-end than continuing the search. Luckily, my guess was correct.
Not sure whether I just missed a clue, did not think quite enough steps ahead, or whether this is one of those puzzles where guessing is inevitable.
Posted 2nd Nov 2020 at 21:17 Last edited by gareth 2nd Nov 2020 at 21:18
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
So far you're the only person to complete it without aids. Pretty impressive!
Techniques required never go past x-wing, but on a jigsaw/wraparound 12x12 puzzle it's often extremely hard to spot all the implications that might perhaps be easier to see on a regular puzzle.
The last one of those that I solved, I fooled myself by making a wrong step. Just wrong. My step didn't work, but I thought it did. I'll try this one as soon as I have a chance of playing it without being interrupted and work issues cool down a bit... I'm curious now.
Did it finally. Had a moment of no way out, too (3 cells with just 9A in it). But found the mistake in time.
Posted 10th Nov 2020 at 07:31
winterer Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: HardBest completion time: 23:05Time on first attempt: 59:53Used 'valid marks' Used 'auto remove'
37 Minutes! Impressive.
Had to play it again with helpers on to see whether I could find the same shortcut. :-) But it still took two attempts to beat my first run. Next time, I must look harder for those x-wing groups.
I just played it through very carefully with help tools on (but didn't check it in the end) to check one thing: It is possible to solve this one without any x-wing at all (but I used those when I did this puzzle the first time)
At one point I needed to find a 4-6-pair in a column that was only left in two cells (to spot this is my weak spot). So I could remove all other numbers from this cell. But even that might not really be necessary (maybe I didn't see something else).
Everything else is like "number x in this row only appears on white cells, so delete x in all white cells in the other rows."
But because of its size and because there seems to be only a narrow path to do it without x-wings, it takes time. The needed techiques are not too hard.
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A yellow/light blue highlight in the time distribution charts highlights your time, where relevant.
Rating scores out of 10.0 show the average difficulty rating chosen by users, where 1.0 is "Easy" and 10.0 is "Hard".
If a puzzle is opened more than once, including by loading from a saved position, then this is potentially a significant aid so it is listed as being completed with 'multiple sessions' for the purpose of the best time/average rating displays above.
Minor aid is defined as no more than one use of 'Check solution' when incomplete and/or no more than one use of 'Check solution' when wrong; and/or using highlighting aids (show repeated digits, show broken inequalities and show valid/invalid placements [slitherlink] only). Major aid is any and all other use of the solving aids except for 'show wrong'.
At one point about half-way through, after searching for a way forward for ten minutes, I resorted to guessing, figuring that it would be faster to backtrack out of a dead-end than continuing the search. Luckily, my guess was correct.
Not sure whether I just missed a clue, did not think quite enough steps ahead, or whether this is one of those puzzles where guessing is inevitable.
Last edited by gareth 2nd Nov 2020 at 21:18
Techniques required never go past x-wing, but on a jigsaw/wraparound 12x12 puzzle it's often extremely hard to spot all the implications that might perhaps be easier to see on a regular puzzle.
I'll try this one as soon as I have a chance of playing it without being interrupted and work issues cool down a bit... I'm curious now.
Had a moment of no way out, too (3 cells with just 9A in it). But found the mistake in time.
Had to play it again with helpers on to see whether I could find the same shortcut. :-)
But it still took two attempts to beat my first run. Next time, I must look harder for those x-wing groups.
It is possible to solve this one without any x-wing at all (but I used those when I did this puzzle the first time)
At one point I needed to find a 4-6-pair in a column that was only left in two cells (to spot this is my weak spot). So I could remove all other numbers from this cell. But even that might not really be necessary (maybe I didn't see something else).
Everything else is like "number x in this row only appears on white cells, so delete x in all white cells in the other rows."
But because of its size and because there seems to be only a narrow path to do it without x-wings, it takes time. The needed techiques are not too hard.
You can however view other players' statistics and comments in the tables above.