Artisanal Sudoku, Volume 239

1. Galassia

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.

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

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

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 3/10

Play online: SudokuPad

New to variant sudoku? Check out these beginner-friendly guides to cages and other popular rulesets.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to SudokuCon or watched the live stream!

2. Kip Up

• 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.

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

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad | unshaded

The Artisanal Sudoku book is available now! Order from Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, or your retailer of choice. If you’ve already bought a copy, please leave a rating and review to help others find it. Thanks!

3. Soleil

• 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, and these digits can repeat if allowed by other rules.

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

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

Play online: SudokuPad

Extra clues: SudokuPad

Prime Week Bonus Puzzle!

If you were at SudokuCon or watching the live stream, you may have gotten a sneak preview of this one (in which case, apologies for the spoilers!), but this is my attempt at a doubler puzzle that’s built more around subtlety than extremes. I’m calling it Irwell, after the river that goes through Manchester (if you saw my other talk, you know roughly how much thought goes into my naming decisions).

• Normal 6x6 sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and box with the digits 1-6 once each).

• Exactly one cell in each row, column, and box is a “doubler”, and doubler cells contain a complete set of the digits 1-6. The value of a doubler cell is equal to its digit multiplied by two.

• Values along thermometers increase from the bulb.

• Values in cells with a shaded square are even.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 6/10

Play online: SudokuPad

Some other puzzles I enjoyed this week:

• Supernova, by Vitray

• Eroteme, by Alaric Taqi A. (Crusader175)

• Pairing Order and Chaos, by sujoyku

Thanks for subscribing to Artisanal Sudoku! Feedback is always appreciated, just leave a comment, reach out on Bluesky, or reply to this email. If you liked these puzzles, you probably know someone else who’d like them too, so please spread the word. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle, click here for more information. And if you want to try more of my puzzles—many of which are tougher than the ones you’ll find here—check out my page on Logic Masters Deutschland.

This week’s meta-description:
Scheduling this in advance. If everything went as planned, I’m currently in [undisclosed European city] recovering after a fantastic weekend!

For premium subscribers, hints and two more bonus puzzles are below. Hope you like ten lines! (The constraint, not the quantity. Although the two bonus puzzles do have an average of exactly ten lines each.)