1to9only wrote: There's probably a way to create the harder levels with more consistency than I can at the moment, but I've yet to figure it out!
Unless you want to add more and more logical methods to your existing suite, you will at some stage require a brute-force solver. My samurai solver works basically as follows:
1) Iterate round the five individual puzzles, solving as far as possible with basic techniques until either completion (your samurai) or, if no further progress, go to step 2.
2) Perform an iteration using a brute-force solver that has been especially modified to find
all the solutions (if more than one), and that retains the values common to all solutions as a partial solution; if still no completion go back to step 1.
3) In rare cases, a final step is required that resolves an overlapping corner by examining the common candidate values still remaining in such a way as to identify the unique solution.
I have made a minimal version of your samurai (see below). Depending on which logic you're using, it might need brute force (I estimate its Sudoku Explainer rating to be in the range 6 to 8).
The second puzzle is the hardest samurai I know of and requires step 3. It is from
ruud. If you can solve that you can solve anything.
HTH,
Mike Metcalf
- Code: Select all
5 9 . 6 . . . . . 1 . . . 6 . . 8 7
2 . 3 5 . . . . . . . 8 . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 7 . . . . . 4 5 . 1 .
. . 1 3 . . . 8 . . . . . . 4 . 2 1
. . . . . . . 2 . 6 . 7 . . . 9 . .
. . . . . 2 . . 3 . 3 2 6 . . . . .
. 1 . . 4 7 . . . 9 . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 8 . . . . . . . 8 . . . . . 8 9 4 . .
6 . . . 3 . . . . 5 . . . . . 3 . . . . .
. . . . . . 8 . 2
. 6 . . 5 . . 4 .
4 . 3 . . . . . .
. . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . 8
. . 5 3 . . . . . . 9 . . . . 8 . . 6 . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 4 .
. . . . . 4 7 3 . 9 . . 7 . . . . .
. . 7 . . . . . 9 . 6 . . . . 1 . 5
4 2 . 5 . . . . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .
. . . 4 7 . . . . . 4 . . 3 . . . .
8 . . . 2 . 1 . . . . . . . 7 2 . 3
. 6 . . 8 . . . 7 . . . . . 1 . . .
- Code: Select all
009070080000600020605040000060503000801000007000800904000004000950000000000065000 1
809000010000040008001062000020500430370080000000006000000000305000603000000070800 2
000000000000010000000060000000000501062005000000090032000400000000001000000302000 3
600040000000570000207000000000800040073090002006005090000300509100600000080000200 4
000700040000002090000500003702060000000370000090000350000004006280003000001000500 5
