From the Foxger’s Den #56: Skyscrapers-X
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
This is a “Franken-Friday” puzzle variation.
Theme: Logical
Rules: Standard Skyscrapers rules. Also, the digits do not repeat along the two main diagonals.
Answer String: Enter the 3rd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 4th row from left to right.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 5:15, Expert = 10:30
Solution: PDF
Oh how I badly failed at solving this puzzle. I didn’t even make the expert time. The diagonals messed me up bad.
I definitely missed something after the initial obvious steps and had to resort to guessing. After that it was pretty easy. So whatever that one step was was a doozy.
As I recall there’s something you do with the 3’s. If you list out the possible positions, you will realize that there’s 1 place where putting a 3 there will force two 3’s on the diagonal, as well as another place where putting a 3 there will force zero 3’s on the diagonal. Eliminating those places allows you to put more 3’s on the board.
Wait, that was the 5’s, not 3’s. Listing out the 3’s position afterwards gets me into some weird X-wing like thing with one of the diagonals, giving a digit on R1C5. Then, I listed out the position of the 1’s to force R2C6. The rest is then easy.
If there’s a really clean way of doing this without any guessing or advanced tactics, I would like to know myself.
Same here, I found the solution with a lot of guesswork, would like to know if there is a neat solve path
After finding R1C5, another option: 4 in R2C5 forces a 2 in both R1C4 and R1C6 (via skyscraper clue and via diagonal). Then you can eliminate 1 from R2C2, and from there it’s smooth.