There were quite a few comments from our visitors, especially on the Daily Killer Sudoku page, which makes that and other pages load slow. Therefore, I have moved some of the old comments to this new category.
If you’d like to read what other people had to say about our puzzles you may find the old comment by clicking on the “comments” link below or here.
UPDATE (some 5 years later): I reopened the comments on all pages. Feel free to add your comments there, it means a lot to me!
Merry Christmas everyone.
I saved last Friday’s killer as too busy that day to look at it, but when I did get to it I finished it quite quickly. I started in the bottom right corner (which solved completely on it’s own) then moved on and finished it all without any problems – maybe the ones struggling are too full of Christmas cheer!
Anyway, keep up the good work, DJApe, and thanks for your great site.
Gaynor, UK
PS Enjoyed ND’s 6th – took a while!
First at all, Merry Chritmas and a Very Happy New Year.
By other hand, how can I find your Killer Book in PDF? Is it raedy?
TIA
Is all well with you DJ?
It is now 8am Sydney time 28th and no killer showing for the 27th?
Adele
Australia
I’m having difficulty with puzzle IQ 817616. I have solved the 8 sum box in row 9 but can get no further. Any tips on solving this one? I’ve been able to solve all previous ones, so what’s making this one so difficult?
No new killer here yet today, and the Times had another repeat killer, boring.
And Rocco, I don’t know what’s making this one so difficult, but I can’t get far, either!
Rocco, try looking at the first row across, then notice the sum of the innie/outie across the first two nonets…
Are you on holiday? Getting bad withdrawal symptoms! Times are too easy, not really worth bothering with, even the so-called ‘deadly’ ones in their supplement. Could we have some extra ones to make up please?
What happens with December 27th & 28th daily killer? Is there any problem?
I can’t seem to make any headway on the last IQ that Djape posted. Can anyone offer me a tip pse to get me started?
Thanks in anticipation.
By the “last one” I take it you mean IQ 679028? Try using the 45 rule on nonet 8 (middle of the bottom row) & that will get you 3 crucial cells.
Glad that people have been enjoying #6…! How many of you have solved it, & how long did it take? I’m always interested to know how difficult people find these things (& if they even find them _too_ difficult!).
& I forgot to add: also use the 45 rule on the top row & bottom row, which will help you with r9c1-2 and r1c8-9.
David, see what I wrote above. I made a mistake and thought Rocco was talking about the current puzzle!
H! DJ Ape is taking a break!
I just found this email from him, dated Dec 26th, on another puzzle page on this website, so I guess we don’t get a new puzzle for a while:
I just uploaded two brand new puzzles to “Daily†pages.
It’s holiday season and I will be away for a few days, so there won’t be any new puzzles until Friday. It’s time to take a short break and then start with more puzzles in the New Year.
Enjoy your hollidays and have fun!
Glad to hear you haven’t got a virus! But missing my puzzles, have looked at the other sorts (overlapping), not so keen on those but getting desperate! I’ve read about a Butterfly sudoku (Dec 22) – which page is this on please?
Hi Gaynor, you can find two butterfly sudokus at http://www.djapedjape.com/gallery.php?file=sudoku/puzzles/
Hi Babs
That’s where i started on the IQ 679028 – innies and outies of first two nonets – two innies must add up to 4. Top row has 5 14 and 9 cages so other two numbers have to add up to 17 – can only be 8,9. So the cage next to them (a 9 cage) has to be 3,6 (3 being one of the innies). Other innie has to be 1. That makes the first cage (a 5 cage) 4,1 but that gives two 1s in the same nonet. Does this make any sense? If it does where am i going wrong?
Hi Babs
Ignore my rant, just found where i was going wrong. Thanks
have done all ND killers but cannot get started on No6. anyone ??
Re: Carolyn
Just starting on IQ 679028. Agree about the r1 c8 and c9 totalling 17 (ie 8,9) – this is also the same by co-incidence of the lower mirror (r9 c1,c2).
The innies of the first two nonets; normally total 4 would give possiblity only of 1,3 since we can’t repeat but since the two innies are far from each other they could also be 2+2 – in this case. Hope this helps as I get to grips with it.
btw From an earlier comment by dj – he now seems to be reluctant to award the top ‘insane’ rating as some smart-arse or other pops up and says ‘that was easy’. Maybe this IQ is really an ‘insane’ undercover?
Thanks for the puzzles Dj – and happy new year to all killer fans.
“The innies of the first two nonets; normally total 4 would give possiblity only of 1,3 since we can’t repeat but since the two innies are far from each other they could also be 2+2”
I don’t think it has ever been stated that innies of (multiple) nonets cannot be the same – provided of course they don’t break the general rule of no duplication of number with a cage or in a nonet. So in the above case the t innies concerned are definitely both 2.
Graham is correct. Those 2 cells are in different nonets, different rows, different columns and different cages. So nothing prohibit having the same value in the 2 cells. Such a configuration is more common with outies, though.
Another interesting pattern are the 3 outies of the bottom center nonet. With some reasoning, you should be able to find out the 3 values. I didn’t use it to solve the puzzle, but found it afterwards 😉
Richard:
ND gives a hint on No6 here:
http://www.ndorward.com/blog/?p=79#comments
IQ 679028 is straightforward – just over 30 mins if you start right. However, it took me four days to find out how to start it right. That is: the suggestion for the two innies on the TC+TL nonots as 4 (I got the 2,2)and then the bottom centre nonet with one innie and two outies 1(in) which gave 4,2,1. then it all rolls out.
For IQ 679028, I also first got the 89’s in the top right and bottom left corners. And there’s only 3 possibilities for the 36-cage.
Then, I penciled in the 2 possibilities for the 15 in the top-left nonet. Only one of them works out with the 36-cage and the rest of the stuff in column 1. That got me about 1/3 of the puzzle.
Hi Hasher and Graham
yes you are right, I realised that the two innies that added up to 4 had to be 2 and 2 once the other option wasn’t working
Thanks for your time
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me the solution to the Samurai SuDoKu oc 1/1/06 in the washington post….. cz every time i do the puzzle, i get two 1’s in a vertical column in the center square
Happy new year to you all. For what it’s worth, in IQ 679028 the first number I got was the 7 in the bottom right nonet.
Mike Japan
Hi Sean,
We can’t post the solution to the puzzle printed in The Post. It should be printed in the same paper a week later than the puzzle.
By the way, how come you got the copy of The Post this early? I thought it was supposed to be printed on January 1?
Best wishes!
Hi folks,
I see some of you are still only reading this Daily Killer page. Well, I had posted a message saying that I will be away (thanks to kjp for quoting it), but it was on the main page of the site.
Anyhow, I’m back and I have uploaded a bunch of new puzzles – explore the site to find them, don’t stick with this page! 🙂
Best wishes to all
Happy New Year!
I am also interested in the solution to the Samurai Sudoku printed in the WA Post. The puzzle is printed in the funnies which are always delivered on Saturday – I guess so you get the coupon books earlier.
In any case, after completing the puzzle, I like to check my answers. Will you never be posting the solutions? I am not willing to wait a week – I guess we could all write in to the Post and ask them to request the solutions or switch back to the other company…
Hi Caroline.
At first I too fell into the trap that 4 is always 3+1 and once I had realised my mistake I thought it too much fun to give the 2+2 away!!
Happy New Year to everyone.
It is 6pm Australia time and we are still sweltering with 44 degree [celsius] heat.
Have not stepped out of the house for 3 days now.
Adele
Australia
Totally agree with Pat regarding solutions. You are presuming that I’m going to keep the Sunday funnies around for a week while I’m waiting for the soltuion to be published. By the way, it’s not uncommon for the Sunday Post inserts to be delivered on Saturday.
Interesting problem with this Sunday Samurai in the Post. I’ve solved the puzzle but find multiple possibilities available in the upper right block rows 5, 6 and 8. Are you sure you can’t put us out of our misery before the next Sunday Post?
I agree with Pat and Don. I have taken the WA Post Samurai Sudoku home to Sacramento with me and won’t have ready access to the Post for Jan. 7th. Please, please, please put the solution up on your website. HNY.
Larry again. Oops, I mean the upper left rows 5, 6 and 8. Sorry about that.
Dear DJ,
Where in your site are the new puzzles you uploaded ?
(BTW: Great IQ on SAT)
Larry yet again,
My Bad! I have solved the puzzle but there are not multiple solutions. I failed to transcribe the “1” in upper left, line 8 to my worksheet as a given. Sorry to have brought it up.
I did the Dec 31st puzzle 3 times & always ended the same. The totals in the center nonet were 29 instead of 27 & 15 instead of 17.
Don, I was able to complete this one but it took awhile. Everything totaled correctly for me, so I think the puzzle itself is okay. I don’t remember how exactly I did it (did it yesterday), but I remember one of the keys was being able to determine that the 24 cage in the center nonet could not contain 6. Therefore, 6 had to go in the 17 cage because I already had it in the 27 cage (nonet 2). Also, it can eventually be determined that the top portion of the 27 cage has to total 13 and the bottom portion 14.
In my opinion this was the hardest killer puzzle on this site since the September 27 puzzle.
Thanks, Karin, for link to butterfly’s.
Downloaded Saturday’s killer on Sunday – took a while to persuade my hungover brain to work, but finished it OK. Less ‘algebra’ and more working out what numbers couldn’t go where. Was hoping for another killer today (Monday) but sadly, none today. I’m on Pay-as-you-go and only look at the pages I’m particularly interested in, which is why I missed your message (DJApe) about having time off. I love the killers, but only do the others when nothing to do.
Adele, whereabouts in Australia are you? We’ve been hearing about forest fires round Sydney.
Happy New Year everyone.
Gaynor, UK (about 7 deg Celcius – warmer than it has been!)
Hi all, recent addict here. Struggling still a bit on the puzzle from 31st. I am in a deadlock!
Hilda, South Africa
Kevin
I trie for the 4th time & realized that I was using the 6 in the 27 cage twice. I finally resolved the problem.
Hi Gaynor,
we are at Camden, south west of Sydney. We could smell the smoke but it was a fair way away.
Love to swap places with you.
Its up to 40 again today.
Pat also struggled with Sats puzzle – took his hungover brain all day to get it done.
Also ND will have his 7th shortly.
Greeting all.
Read the above mails full of helpful comments and advice.
Read it a couple of days after the event and terms such as ‘last fridays killer’ or ‘I was able to complete this one’ – and it all becomes very confusing. If, like me, a reader needs all the help he can get then a specific reference to the puzzle in question is essential.
So, a new year request: Please can we refer to DJ’s killers by their unique number (eg IQ 679028)?
It will be much easier to follow the train of help that way.
Many Thanks
on on
Hasher
With regards to Brians Comments on adding the puzzle ref. I totally agree. I second that request.
Regards
David
hello ¡¡¡ the solution you have posted is today solution for thinker killer, not yesterday’s solution for the IQ……
best regards
Oops, sorry about that folks and thanks Mercedes for telling me about this problem. It’s been rectified – the solution is now for Tuesday’s COOL.
I support Brian’s suggestion – it saves trying to walk back through a set of comments
On On
Hatman
Ho hum, finished all the currently available killers….
If you REALLY want a challenge you could try my Sudok42 – with a 7×6 grid of 7×6 squares….
It’s over on the H2G2 bit of bbc.co.uk -:http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A5475431