Fillomino by Thomas Snyder
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a number entry mode.)
Theme: Logical
Author/Opus: This is the 178th puzzle from Thomas Snyder aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.
Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows/columns, enter the area of the polyomino it belongs to. Enter both digits of any two-digit values. Start with the 5th row, followed by a comma, followed by the 5th column.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:00, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other classic Fillomino. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Fillomino puzzles to get started on.
Nice 🙂
I personally like Fillomino where total sum of clues come into play to fit the size of grid.
Also seeing the discussion that all puzzles were solvable as another type too. And solved all puzzles this week as double types. It was difficult guessing this one, then tried elimination and came to conclusion that it can only be Classic Sudoku.. 🙂
I didn’t really count carefully so much as poke around and realize this was going to be a tight squeeze, and then figured out roughly how things were going to have to flow. You may therefore have had an easier time of spotting the alternate puzzle type, since it hadn’t really sunk in for me that it was a 9×9 puzzle…
Enjoyed both versions of the puzzle.
Haha
True.
Actually size of puzzle also was giving a hint because usually 10*10 is preferred not compulsory but as i said no other type on this site could match the given clues and the way clues were placed could only hint one thing..
Definitely counting helps in few puzzles but not always and could turn out to be loss of time. so it depends if not getting anything i try out that thing. 🙂
Awesome, thank you! I’d tried this before but failed, mostly due to my lack of skill in constructing the other type.
You had me going until today! I was wondering when GMP was going to start publishing more puzzles, and it seems they are doing so without my notice. So I get six puzzles today instead of one.
Well, Tom, I think you’ve got another theme for your “Double Trouble” book! Except this one would be all over the map instead of just one type.
Is this Fillomino solvable without using the Sudoku rule?
Yes, this works as a regular 9×9 Fillomino, entirely separate from the sudoku.
While I’m enjoying the hidden element of this week’s puzzles, I can’t help but think we may have solved next week’s puzzles as well.
You don’t have to worry about this.
I originally tried solving this one as an Araf (surely, that would make a good Fillomino doppelganger, right?) But the 3 in the top right corner stopped that thinking pretty quickly…there’s nowhere for it to go.
I had thought about that, but the problem is that you get a real space issue as the sum the highest numbers of each Araf area alone have to add up to a total that is greater than the total area of the grid already. So you have to have a lot of equal value clues, that can join to form a single fillomino area as you also have to account for the lowest numbers.
When these puzzles arrived (as they do to Patreons) as an email attachment last week, I thought most of them were first class – but that maybe one or two were slightly less interesting than usual. Somehow something was missing… but that was it. Yeah, I completely missed the theme until I came back to the site today. I feel pretty dumb.
But wow. Amazing work throughout the week.
This is the puzzle pairing that surprised me the most – I would not have thought it possible for the givens to work so well in both contexts.
To be honest, I generally dislike this kind of gimmick puzzle because the constituent parts often suffer. I hesitated to use this theme for a week until I saw the quality of some of the submissions from Grant and Craig and Prasanna. Then the challenge became how to present the week in a way to get some solvers to miss what was going on.
I’m certainly biased, but I felt this Fillomino and Not Fillomino was the hardest to construct and least obvious in the set. Neither puzzle type has “extraneous” clues in its DNA (say like the white circles in a Masyu), so quite a bit of exploration around a good seed was needed to get both uniquely solvable. The Fillomino ended up being somewhat unusual, but in a good way.
This puzzle is the dual puzzle from this week where, once I thought about it, I was mildly surprised it was actually possible. It is certainly the one, in my opinion, where the constraints of the one most actively work against the constraints of the other.
Where is the sudoku?I could only as much as guess to complete the puzzle once again.
Break the grid into 3×3.