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what a terrific double set of puzzles! i love japanese sums, and these were top notch. and juuuust challenging enough in the tougher half to keep me at it without being frustrating.

Benny Ng

The samurai rules are explained: Four normal 9x9 sudoku grids are given, with a fifth grid superimposed on the other four, sharing digits with each. Note that the center grid is denoted with red lines. This is purely to assist the solver in distinguishing the grid. It has no special meaning. The fifth grid is a true 9x9 grid.

Shawn Kiewel

I've never done a Samurai puzzle before so the statement "Normal samurai rules apply" in the PDF means nothing to me. Although Japanese Sums were well defined, I don't see Samurai rules defined. I assume Samurai mean that the numbers in the 5th (red) grid must follow normal sudoku rules to the extent possible given the 5th grid is not a true 9x9 grid. Is that the case?

Mr, Pudifoot, we updated the pack for exactly that reason ! :) Sorry about the inconvenience and I hope you are enjoying the pack!

Panthera Cheshire

Mark, if you are on the discord, you can show it to me and I'll check it over for you! :)

Panthera Cheshire

If you have entered the correct one digit, five digits and five digits, it should accept it.

Cracking The Cryptic

Hello - can I just clarify it is just the numbers 1 to 5 used in the first puzzle? I seem to have a perfectly valid solution but it just won't accept it when I enter the cage, row 3 and column 3 into the solutions page? Any tips on what I might be doing wrong? Thank you!

Oops thanks, I see now something I was missing, and somehow inadvertently stumbled upon an unintended result which confused me further.

Unless I am missing something, the shading of the first doctoral puzzle is ambiguous. Specifically the shading of the middle cell. This has no effect on anything, but I thought i would mention it.

Mr Pudifoot

Thank you so much CtC. I am enjoying these so much. I love Japanese Sum puzzles, and these are just awesome!

Jason Veale

If it's for the doctoral pack, each cage total is related to a letter of the alphabet. :) Using a = 1 and z = 26, you should be able to figure out the hidden phrase.

Panthera Cheshire

I had a lot of trouble understanding how to use the "cage total" for the final solution. Initially I assumed it meant effectively the sum of all individual digits in all the cages (or, equivalently, the sum of the separate cage totals). My description would be to "enter the concatenation of the cage totals for each puzzle in order the puzzles are presented".

ah ok - so the 'unshaded' digits are required for clue - got it!

It's not the sum of row 3 or column 3. It is the digits of those in order.

Shawn Kiewel

I am also getting 'try again'. Wouldnt the sum of row 3 and column 3 just be the sum of the given clues on the outside of the grid? "shaded" = there is a digit, and "unshaded" =black and no digit - is that right?

All puzzles require the digits 1-N, where N is the size of the puzzle.

Shawn Kiewel

We tried to explain each of the rules explicitly. Sorry some of the smaller puzzles missed the explanation of 1-N digits.

Shawn Kiewel

Wondered this myself. Found out the 3rd row and 3rd column is all numbers in row/column in the order they appear in the grid (top down in column, left right in row)

aha! That works. Thank you. I should've checked the Discord. 🙂 (I wasn't too worried - just kept on working through the puzzles.)

Here is what TheAsylm says on Discord: You need to put all of the digits from row 3 then all of the digits from column 3 in order, as well as the cage total, read left-to-right, top-to-bottom

Cracking The Cryptic

I haven't been able to get this either. The instructions are not clear on this at all. Seems like the sum of all digits in row 3 and column 3 should always be the same for any particular size sudoku, like the 5x5 would be 15 both ways. You're right that the shaded digit sums don't work either though, so I don't know what was intended here.

Very good questions. Hopefully they will clarify

I seem to have fallen at the first hurdle. :( Can I get confirmation about the 'catchphrase' piece of the puzzle? When I go to the PBN page, I enter: - the sum of all digits in the cage - the sum of all digits in row 3 (or is it all *shaded* digits? or something else?) - the sum of all digits in column 3 I'm trying every permutation I can think of for 'row 3' and 'column 3' and I keep getting the 'sorry try again' message.

Fair points. Normal sudoku rules need to be adapted to the size of the puzzle so a sudoku of size NxN uses the digits 1-N in each row and column. The basic Japanese Sums rules require that the numbers outside the grid indicate, in order, the sums of runs of contiguous cells found in that row or column that must be shaded. There must be at least one unshaded cell between shaded runs.

Cracking The Cryptic

do we need to determine what the digits to use are? 1-5,6,7...?

The rules for the puzzle are wrong and do not explain enough. Normal sudoku rules apply to a 5 by 5 square? Do you only mean that no digits repeat in row or column, do I have to manage this using digits 1-9 once each, or am I to only use the digits between 1-5? I'm also not familiar with the rules of Japanese sums and would have appreciated an explanation at least once in the packet.