Assassin 50-59 & 60-79 moved to the end of this thread
http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3182#3182
mhparker wrote:0.5: Typical newspaper "Deadly". Intended to be done using only limited pencilmarks.
0.75: Easy Assassin, like some of the very early ones, such as A1. Rarely seen now: all recent Assassins would have at least a 1.0 rating on this scale.
1.0: "Average" V1 Assassin (looking back over a longer period of time). Something like A57, perhaps.
1.25: Harder Assassin. Actually, most recent Assassins seem to have become more difficult than they traditionally used to be. So a ratingof"1.25" would be considered the norm now. Typical example: A59.
1.5: Hard Assassin, having a significantly longer and/or narrower solution path, and/or requiring more advanced techniques. The A60 was definitely one of these.
1.75: Very hard Assassin, but still not hard enough to require a team effort to solve. Does not require any hypotheticals. The A60RP-Lite could maybe deserve such a rating.
2.0: Traditional "V2" standard, typically requiring a team effort and maybe (but not necessarily) involving limited use of hypotheticals. Example: A55V2.
2.5: Requires a team effort and several short to medium length hypotheticals. The TJK18 and A48-Hevvie would probably fall into this category.
3.0: "Ruudiculous", requiring a team effort and massive hypotheticals to solve, if it can be solved at all. The A50V2 and (possibly) A60RP could be considered examples of this.
4.0: Puzzles with unique solutions, but which can only realistically be solved by computer programs using backtracking (brute force).
Assassin 80+ & Forum Killers' (& Killer X) Ratings
List in (mostly) chronological order.
Assassin 80 (Rating 1.50)
Assassin 2X (Rating 1.50)
Assassin 2X Lite (Rating 1.0)
Assassin 81 (Rating 1.0)
Assassin 82 (Rating 1.25)
Assassin 82 V2X (Rating 1.50)
Assassin 83 (Rating 1.50)
Assassin 84 (Rating 1.25)
Assassin 84 V2.38 (Rating 1.50)
Radial (Rating 1.25)
Assassin 85 (Original) (Rating 2.50)
Assassin 85 (Suitabled version) (Rating 1.25)
Assassin 86 (Rating 1.25)
Assassin 73 V1.5 (Rating Hard 1.50)
Assassin 87 (Rating Hard 1.0)
Assassin 88 (Rating Hard 1.25)
Assassin 89 (Rating 1.25)
Bored89-Easy (Rating 1.25)
Bored89-Hard (Rating 1.75)
Assassin 90 (Rating Hard 1.75)
Assassin 91 (Rating 1.25)
Maverick 3 (Rating 1.25)
Maverick 4 (Rating Hard 1.50)
Unofficial Assassin 93 (uA93) (Rating 1.0)
Unofficial Assassin 94 (uA94) (Rating 1.25)
Yet Another killer (YaK) #94 (Rating Hard 1.25)
(unofficial) Assassin 95 (uA95) (Rating 1.25)
nd's #9 (aka Night of the Living Sudoku) (Rating easy 1.75)
(Unofficial) Assassin 96 YAK 96v1 (Rating 0.75)
(Unofficial) Assassin 96 V1.5 (Rating Easy 1.25)
YAK 96V2 (Rating 1.75)
(Unofficial) Assassin 97 (UA 97) (Rating 1.0)
(Unofficial) Assassin 97 V1.5 (Rating Hard 1.25)
(Unofficial) Assassin 97 V2 (UA97 V2) (Rating Easy 1.5)[changed from Hard 1.25]
Special: Windoku-Killer 1 (Rating 1.0)(NOTE: multiple solutions)
(unofficial) Assassin 98 (uA98) (Rating 1.25)
(unofficial) Assassin 98 v2 (uA98v2) (Rating easy 1.5)
Unofficial Assassin 99 (UA 99) (Rating 1.0)
Unofficial Assassin 99 V1.5 (UAv1.5) (Rating Hard 1.25)(note: changed from 1.50)
Unofficial Assassin 99.5 (UA99v.5) (Rating Hard 1.25)
(Unofficial) Assassin 100 (Rating 1.50)
___________________________________________________________
Rating 4.0
___________________________________________________________
Rating 3.0
__________________________________________________________
Rating 2.5
Assassin 85 (Original version) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4374#4374
Cathy w wrote: I have 3 placements and am totally stuck. Tried it again using JS which cannot solve it!
Ruud wrote:The phrase "******* Puzzle Not completed. *******" just scrolled out of sight in the solver log. The Assassin has been replaced with a more suitable puzzle
herschko wrote: I was wondering I had to resort to massive guessing to get this done
Nasenbaer wrote: It's definitely real hard work to crack this thing. 4 hours now and just a few steps. Oh well.... I think we have to either use chains or give Ruud the satisfaction of defeating us
Andrew wrote:it will be interesting to see if anyone, or any software solver, can come up with a solution without using chains
Andrew wrote:I think we have just finished a puzzle rated at 2.5. It definitely required a team effort and we used a fair number of contradiction moves as well as Mike's AIC in step 40. I don't think we quite reached massive hypotheticals
Afmob wrote:I'll agree with the rating of 2.5 because of the size of some of the chains we used
______________________________________________________tag solution by Andrew, mhparker, Afmob & Nasenbaer, from http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4376#4376
Rating 2.0
_________________________________________________________
Rating 1.75
Assassin 90
frank wrote:My procedure for attacking Assassins...4. If the grid turns every colour of the rainbow and the log
file says "No enabled solver can progress !" head off to the pub...6. I am off to the pub! Smile
mhparker wrote:Ruud certainly seems to have turned up the heat with his recent Assassins! In bygone times, we used to create V2's based on the same cage pattern. Now, if anything, the only practical option left is to create a "Lite"version!
Nasenbaer wrote: This assassin drives me crazy. I've already used several chains (and two sheets of paper) in 45 steps but still only 3 placements. Evil or Very Mad. I think I'm missing something significant...
goooders wrote:When was the last time, errors excepted, that an assassin hasnt been completed on day 1?
HATMAN wrote:this one is a complete swine. Frank... I agree with you, Guinness being my preference
Afmob (on Bored89 thread) wrote:right now, I would love to have some easier assassins which aren't of rating 1.25-1.5 since they are the most fun to solve
Afmob wrote:Seems my plea didn't get heard Laughing....this monster.Rating: Hard 1.75
Nasenbaer wrote:This assassin was a real beast...almost gave up. SudokuSolver rates it as 1.61 which is much too low in my opinion. The rating of hard 1.75 from Afmob seems ok with me
goooders wrote:This was horrible.Took me nearly 10 hours.And near on 2 bottles of sauvignon blanc/chardonnay.If anything I would go north of 1.75
Andrew wrote:Like everyone else I found A90 a really tough Assassin (but) my solution used fairly heavy combination and permutation analysis (not chains)..(though) I agree with Afmob's rating of Hard 1.75
YAK 96 V2 by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4846#4846Walk-through by Afmob with some forcing chains and one (or two) contradiction chain(s) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4484#4484
2.5 hour solution using a contradiction "move" outline by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4489#4489
Walk-through by Andrew using techniques similiar to those used in his solving Brick Wall http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4494#4494
Jean-Christophe wrote: rating "not sure it's hard enough for regular members"..SudokuSolver v3.0 scores: V2: 1.79 JSudoku cannot solve V2..I designed ...(tricky) moves..
Afmob wrote:UA 96 V2 was quite challenging and interesting ..It had a regular X-Wing which you don't find that often in Killers...Compared to ND #9 my moves wheren't much more complicated but it took me some time to find them ... That's why I rate UA 96 V2 higher..Rating: 1.75. I used combo analysis and a forcing chain
Bored89-Hard(x-killer) by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4467#4467Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4860#4860
Explaining "tricky" moves used to design by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4862#4862
Afmob wrote:What a tough Killer. There was only little progress you could make with no breakthrough moves at all but by picking off every candidate one by one ... Rating: 1.75. I used some heavy combination analysis ...
Nasenbaer wrote:I didn't think it had the quality to be named Assassin
Grandmaster Andrew wrote:Easy was definitely of Assassin quality and I'm sure that Hard will be even more so..I'm hoping to have a go at Hard
Andrew wrote:A really challenging puzzle....Changing the cages in N5 took away the useful 5(2) cage in C6 making it a lot harder than the Easy version....Some of the key solving involves 4 outies....Since my combination analysis was only moderately heavy, I'll rate this puzzle as Hard 1.5
nd's #9 (aka Night of the Living Sudoku) SS(v3)score 2.45 http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4808#4808Walkthrough by Afmob with what could be considered as very short chain-like contradiction http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4468#4468
Walk-through by Andrew including summaries of combination and permutation analysis http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4807#4807
sudokuEd wrote:I spent Easter '06 trying to solve this beauty and have been hopelessly hooked on (difficult) killers ever since
Afmob wrote:you could totally ignore some nonets to crack it ....At first I wanted to rate it 1.75 but I discovered that the complex combo analysis I had used wasn't necessary to solve it so I deleted it from my wt. Rating: 1.5. I used one forcing chain and a Hidden Killer quad
mhparker wrote:Afmob's 1.5 rating! Shocked (<-- very surprised, because I would have expected a 1.75 - or even a 2.0 Exclamation - here, due to need for a chain to break the deadlock)
sudokuEd wrote:Afmob, some really great moves in steps 1-3! But your first instinct works much better for me - no way could I seriously put this classic onto the rating sticky as a 1.5 (more like a 2.0 with that type of chain)!
Afmob wrote:I rated ND 9 only "1.5" because when I solved it, it flowed quite well meaning I didn't really came to halt despite those difficult moves. Also my wt is quite short and doesn't have this many ! moves where as my other 1.75 walkthroughs are usually quite large and have many ! moves and they also wouldn't be cracked with one chain only... So maybe it's more a hard 1.5. Compared to UA97 V2 which I'm tackling at the moment (made 4 placements so far) ND9 is way easier
_______________________________________________________________Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4809#4809
Alt simpler chain by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4913#4913
Rating 1.5
Maverick 4 by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4561#4561
Nasenbaer wrote:We're all still waiting to hear from Ruud. But..to prevent deprivation I give you a new one. Hopefully there is no shortcut this time. Twisted Evil. (RS-rating: 1.9 - but I think that's too high, maybe a hard 1.5
Afmob wrote:That was a demanding Killer. The moves might be of rating 1.5 but it took me really long to find them so I rate it higher than Nasenbaer suggested. Rating: 1.75
mhparker wrote:The first 11 moves in my WT (out of the 13 I've managed to find up to now) are all "45" tests(!). As to the difficulty level, Mavericks don't need to always be so hard. Indeed, if no original Assassins appear for a while, we're going to need some in the 1.0 - 1.25 rating range
Andrew wrote:I'm still working at it, making some progress each session. So far 20(!) different "45" tests in 31 steps..(eventually) looked at another 5 of them
Andrew wrote:I didn't find this one quite as difficult as Maverick 1, which most people rated as a Hard 1.5, so I'll also rate Maverick 4 as a Hard 1.5. I didn't feel that my combination analysis justified a higher rating; it was fairly routine after the heavy analysis used for some recent puzzles
on uA93 thread Caida wrote:I have been struggling with Maverick #4 (and may soon have to just take a peek at the posted walkthroughs)
mhparker wrote:some of my moves were maybe a bit "OTT" (i.e., "over the top")! Very Happy Afmob and Andrew will probably have a good laugh at this one, when they see what techniques I was resorting to! As to the rating, it definitely deserves a 1.75 from the point-of-view of the techniques I was using
Afmob wrote:..different solving approaches. ..Though we all used different moves it seems that the key areas to crack this puzzle are .... by either combo analyzing their Innies or using chains in that region
Andrew wrote:Having gone through all three walkthroughs again today, I wondered whether I was right with my rating (hard 1.5?) but then remembered the reason I gave with my walkthrough; I found Maverick 1 harder to solve than this one, particularly in how long they took
Assassin 84 version 2.38 http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4323#4323Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4569#4569
Walk-through by Andrew which finds the diagonals very helpful, not just for uniqueness http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4596#4596
OTT Walk-through by mhparker including Grouped AIC & Grouped Turbot Fish http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4658#4658
Detailed comparison of the 3 posted walk-throughs by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4792#4792
Caida wrote: I didn't find this any harder than the original version - so I would put it as a 1.25 also
mhparker wrote: I think it's slightly harder than the V1, so I would rate it as 1.5..The use of the chain .. (although fairly quick to spot) was the reason for my rating of 1.5
mhparker about Jsudoku log wrote:Step 4 is an advanced (i/o) move that would be enough to justify a 1.5 rating
Afmob wrote:I used the same breakthrough move.. as Mike.. by using a forcing chain. Rating: Easy 1.5. Without using the forcing chain this assassin would have required lots of combo crunching
Andrew wrote: I tried to solve it without using a chain but gave up ..I'll rate A84V2 as 1.5 using the contradiction chain. I wonder what the rating would be without using it?
mhparker wrote: I would personally rate JSudoku's "no chain" solution path as "only" 1.75
Assassin 2X (A2X) by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4225#4225Walk-through by Caida http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4326#4326
Partial walk-through of key steps by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4333#4333
JSudoku log without chain move compiled by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4333#4333
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4344#4344
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4351#4351
Analysis of non-T&E chain (where none of the links depend on the side-effects (i.e., candidate/combo eliminations) of any preceding links) by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4353#4353
mhparker wrote: Est. rating: 1.75..Yeah, looks pretty straightforward, I know... Wink..this is more like a traditional V2, which (whilst having easier
sections) generally involves more of a fight to dig away at the candidates
Caida wrote: After several false starts I have finally managed to finish A2X. I don't know that I would rate this as a 1.75 (I managed to finish it through perseverance) but I could see rating it as 1.5
Afmob wrote: Rating: 1.5, had some difficult moves but not too many of them
Andrew wrote: There seems to be a very narrow solving path (to begin). It certainly took a lot more work after that. I'll agree with both of them and rate A2X as 1.5
(Unofficial) Assassin 100 (UA100) by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5079#5079Walk-through by Caida with key moves close to the beginning http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4235#4235
Walk-through by Afmob with Killer XY-Wing http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4238#4238
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4303#4303
mhparker wrote:this Assassin is a bit tougher than usual. Your creativity is called for..(Est. rating: 1.5) SudokuSolver v3.0 scores this at 1.41
Afmob wrote:What a tough Killer! It reminded me of Maverick 1 because of the use of (standard) Sudoku techniques ... to crack it though UA 100 was a bit tougher..Rating: 1.5. I used colouring
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5084#5084
Assassin 82 V2X (aka Killer X-mas Tree) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4278#4278
Ruud wrote:It is solvable by logic, but you need a lot of it
Afmob wrote: it was tough to find the solution since it took me a long time to find the key moves. Rating: 1.5, it had only few advanced moves but those were difficult to find
Assassin 80Surprisingly short Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4285#4285
mhparker wrote: It was a tough puzzle. Rating = 1.5? .. this puzzle is very similar in difficulty to the A78
gary w wrote: puzzle... so well crafted...my solution depended critically on exactly the same part of the grid that Mike concentrated on..Yes,let's go for 1.5
Caida wrote: I found this one difficult but definitely doable (I managed without peeking at anyone else's walkthrough)..this was more difficult than "the norm" but it wasn't as crazy difficult as others have been. Thus my rating of 1.5
Afmob wrote: This was quite a tough assassin. Rating: 1.5 .. I found those moves in A80 were harder to spot and the solving path was quite narrow
goooders wrote:i agree with afmob ,his rating and his reasoning its a 1.5 for me
Andrew wrote:I found it distinctly harder (than A78)....
After coming to a dead halt several days ago I came back to A80 yesterday and looked for things I'd missed before....but not enough
mhparker wrote: I now agree with a rating of 1.5 for this one
Assassin 83Walk-through by mhparker with not so easy to spot step 17 http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4210#4210
Walk-through by Caida with creative colouring move http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4212#4212
Walk-through by Afmob without lots of little eliminations http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4214#4214
Walk-through by Andrew with one contradiction move http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4265#4265
Ruud wrote:A tough Assassin with a few large cages. Also a test to see if a high rating by a solver program really represents a tough killer
gooders wrote: i would guess it's about 1.25 on the basis it took me 1 to 2 hours
Afmob wrote: Rating: Hard 1.25. It needed some detailed Innies+Outies analysis
gary w wrote:I'ld agree with a 1.25 rating.Once you see the key areas of the puzzle to work on ...it comes out quite readily
mhparker wrote: it took me a long time to even find a way into the puzzle without using some sort of contradiction move. Therefore, I have no hesitation in giving this one a rating of 1.5
Andrew wrote: I found it difficult to make progress in the early stages. Because of the difficulty of getting into this puzzle, I rate it a moderate 1.5
(Unofficial) Assassin 98 V2 (UA98V2) by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4949#4949Walk-through principles by goooders http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4299#4299
Walk-through by Afmob without little eliminations that led to nothing http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4302#4302
Walk-through by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4307#4307
Walk-through by Andrew which makes the beginning look easy and some interesting pre-breakthrough moves http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4310#4310
mhparker wrote:(Est. rating: 1.75)..SudokuSolver v3.0 scores this at 2.28, but of course...
Afmob wrote:despite its difficulty was really fun to solve. Thanks Mike! I thought that I had to use chains to crack it because of SS's rating and JSudoku needs XY-Chains to solve it, but ...
sudokuEd wrote:Been trying for nearly 18 months (since UTA) to be able to use this trick to solve a puzzle. I'm tempted to call this way a hard 1.25 rating, but lets settle for easy 1.50 Cool
Andrew wrote:I felt that V2 was easier (than the original) but that was probably because of what I'd learned from solving V1. Also I think there were more key moves in my V2 solution. For those reasons I'll rate V2 as an Easy 1.5 rather than a Hard 1.25
Afmob wrote:Note that the structure of the puzzle also allows one of JC's favorite moves - overlap
Andrew wrote:Ed made more use of it (overlap) in his solution
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4951#4951
Walk-through by sudokuEd including 4-cell overlap http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4987#4987
walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4997#4997
(Unofficial) Assassin 97 V2 (UA97 V2) by Jean-christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4890#4890
Jean-Christophe wrote:here is one rated 1.88 by SS
Afmob wrote:This Killer was truly devilish. It took me really long to find the important moves.. I think my step 6a (the most difficult one) is more a contradiction chain than combo analysis, so I tend to rate this Assassin 2.0
Afmob wrote:Edit: As shown by JC, this Killer can be solved in an easier way, so my rating is way off (though it fits my wt
gary w wrote:Yes,the last version of 97 was horrible!!
Jean-christophe wrote:UA97 V2 is not that hard if you spot the right In/outies
Afmob wrote:Judging from JC's continued wt, UA97 V2 would be of rating (hard) 1.25
Andrew wrote:That was really neat to create a puzzle with 3 IOUs in R7..IMHO the overlap of R7C3467 and R7C456 is easier to spot than J-C's way. Having solved it myself with help on that one step, I felt that it had a long solution and a fairly narrow solving path with many of my key steps the same as those used by J-C, so I'll rate uA97 V2 at 1.5
____________________________________________________Walk-through deserving a 2.0 rating by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4916#4916
Walk-through by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4920#4920
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5067#5067
Rating 1.25
Unofficial Assassin 99 V1.5 (UA 99 V1.5) by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5023#5023
Afmob wrote:Estimated rating: 1.25 SS Score: 1.28 This variant should give you a bit more trouble since it doesn't crumble after the first placements
mhparker wrote:Indeed! Took me over twice as long to get to all singles compared to the V1! A monster of a "1.25" rating if ever there was one! Felt like at least a 1.5 to me!
Andrew wrote:I'll rate uA99 V1.5, as reworked (walk-through), as a Hard 1.25
(Unofficial) Assassin 97 V1.5 by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4890#4890Walk-through by mhparker that's huge even in tt http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5044#5044
an alternative (technically easier) route by mhparker (suggested by Afmob) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5044#5044
Re-worked Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5121#5121
Jean-Christophe wrote:I joined two cages and here is one rated 1.41 by SS
Afmob wrote:Rating: (Hard?) 1.25. I used Killer pairs and some Innies+Outies analysis
gary w wrote:so I'ld rate it about 1.25
Andrew wrote:It looks as if a very short forcing chain, Afmob's step 7a, my step 30, is one of the key moves in this puzzle..I'll go slightly higher than Afmob and rate uA97 V1.5 as an Easier 1.5. Most of my steps 29 to 34 were fairly difficult to find. Maybe it's a Hard 1.25 for those using software solvers and an Easier 1.5 for those of us who don't
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4896#4896
Outline by gary w including X-wing http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4907#4907
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4935#4935
(Unofficial) Assassin 99.5 by frank http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5057#5057
frank wrote:Don't be fooled by the equatorial nonets. They are designed to lull you into a sense of false security. The Assassin shows its true colours when you venture forth to the poles. SS rating 1.29
gary w wrote:Took me just under the hour..no really difficult moves so I'ld rate it about 1.0
Andrew wrote:Easy progress in the middle three rows with several cells fixed and the remaining cages and hidden cages down to 1 or 2 combinations. Then .. it was a very long time before this puzzle finally crumbled. In some ways it felt a bit like a mini version of the Brick Wall
Andrew wrote:Although most of my moves weren't difficult ones, some of them were hard to find and it's a very long solving path so I'll rate uA99.5 at 1.5
Afmob wrote:(fun and challenging) Killer. The most important move (combo analysis of Outies) which I don't look for too often but ... which is also the reason why I don't rate it 1.5. Rating: Hard 1.25
Long solving path Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5131#5131
Reluctant Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5142#5142
Assassin 88
In the lead-in Ruud wrote:This Assassin will give you a busy week ... or at least the weekend
Afmob wrote: it's quite stubborn in the end game (my first version was about 30% longer)..Rating: 1.25. I used some Killer triples
gary w wrote: I found this one rather harder than most recent assassins..at least it took me longer to do,about 3 hours or so. Having said that I didn't use any advanced moves..couldn't really find a "neat" move for this one!!
Andrew wrote:It took me until the end of the weekend, working on and off, to solve A88. Like Gary I had to do a lot of combo work. .. Gary must be a quicker solver than I am; it took me much longer than 3 hours. I guess I'll still rate A88 as 1.25 but definitely one of the hardest of that rating for me.
Andrew wrote:In Afmob's walkthrough..I think steps 5g and 5h were also key ones that removed the need for a lot of combo work
gary w wrote: It's not that I'm a particularly fast solver but that I don't normally keep a wt as I go along ..Yes,I think I would rate no.88 as close to 1.5 ..quite a bit tougher than some other recent assassins
Andrew wrote: in the past few months I've been putting steps in the correct place if they were ones I felt that I ought to have spotted earlier; ... If that happens several times, as it does for some puzzles, it adds a lot to my solving time
Assassin 89Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4440#4440
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4446#4446
sublue wrote:put this one down as disturbingly easy
Hatman wrote:I agree - managed it in one session over my (early) lunch..I remember starting with heavy work on...
Afmob wrote:I can't say that this assassin was "disturbingly" easy or moderate...since I used a chain to crack it. Rating: Easy 1.5. I had to use a small chain
gary w wrote:Yes, much easier than last week's
mhparker wrote:Managed to find 90 minutes or so to have a crack at this one, and promptly failed to make any real impression onit. I now look forward to reading the other WTs.. and discovering which easy moves missed!
Andrew wrote:Hope you can find some of them below. Wink .....I'll rate A89 as a moderate to hard 1.25. I don't think steps 25 and 26 require a higher rating
on Bored89 thread Afmob wrote:A89 is of rating 1.25 (I rated it 1.5 but Andrew showed an easier way to solve it)
(unofficial) Assassin 98 (uA98) by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4939#4939Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4458#4458 Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4463#4463
sudokuEd wrote: SS(v3)score is 1.25. Feels spot on
Afmob wrote:I found a nice and very helpful Hidden Killer quint which cracks this puzzle which you don't see to often (though it might be a bit of a overkill compared to the suggested rating)
Afmob wrote:I also think that the SudokuSolver rating is spot on, but I rate my wt (Hard) 1.25 because of the "overkill" move Wink
mhparker wrote:I'll rate it as a middle-of-the-road 1.25, because I didn't use any "overkill" moves
Afmob wrote:Mike's and my breakthrough move for V1 are quite similar but it can be solved in a different way which isn't more difficult
Andrew wrote:I clearly found...uA98 much harder than Afmob and Mike did..didn't use any very difficult steps but since it took me a long time to spot the breakthrough move I'll rate uA98 as an Extremely Hard 1.25
Afmob wrote:V1 could be solved in a normal (aka not hard) 1.25 way. I discovered this way of solving it with the help of Mike's step 2
sudokuEd wrote:I used outies n69 rather than Afmob's more productive i/o n69 (his "easier uA98 WT"). I also liked how there were so many i/o possibilities all over the place
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4943#4943
Walk-through by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4944#4944
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4995#4995
Easier way walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5003#5003
Direct-link eliminations used in Andrew's solution - by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5015#5015
Yet Another killer (YaK) #94 by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4713#4713
Afmob wrote:I thought this one was a monster since SS rated it 2.02 and JSudoku used XY-Chains and Turbot Fishes to crack it. But I managed to crack it in (with) two moves... there is nothing complicated about this and even those moves are easy to see I think. Rating: 1.25
mhparker wrote:I agree, although probably a high 1.25
Andrew wrote:Although I used the same key moves as the others, I missed one early move....Missing that early step didn't seem to make the solution path any harder so I'll also rate this puzzle 1.25
sudokuEd wrote:Even knowing there was an easy way to solve this one, it took me many hours to find the key. Felt more like the SSscore to me - but then starting again to get straight to the unlocker: how easy Very Happy
Assassin 91Walkthrough by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4731#4731
Optimised Walk-through by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4760#4760
Walk-through by Andrew including a couple of fun steps later http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4773#4773
Reasons for SudokuSolverv3 & JSudoku finding this puzzle hard going by sudokuEd & mhparker starting at http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4800#4800
Examples of Para using Almost Locked Sets Blockers by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4803#4803
Another example of 2-cell Almost Locked Set (ALS) (+1) by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4847#4847
Afmob wrote:This was a fun assassin since I got to use Killer triples and Killer quads. It took me more time than it should have. Rating: Hard 1.25
gary w wrote:I think Afmob's rating is about right.I didn't use any really hard moves solving this killer
Andrew wrote:took me a long time to solve. ... It took me several sessions to spot.. my first key move. Therefore although my steps weren't hard ones, I'll rate A91 as a lower range 1.5
mhparker on Maverick 3 thread wrote: definitely a notch (below 1.5) . I managed (it) in under two hours
Unofficial Assassin 94 (UA94) by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4712#4712Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4495#4495
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4510#4510
mhparker wrote:Est. rating: 1.5
Caida wrote: I can't remember off-hand how the ratings go - but this didn't "feel" too difficult. I think it's about a 1 (maybe 1.25)
Afmob wrote:It'll be interesting to see if other users can solve it without resorting to the one difficult move..Rating: 1.25. This is a one-trick pony and I think this one move Caida and I used is too difficult/advanced for a 1.0 Killer
Andrew wrote:Wow, this was a tough one! It stretched my brain power to the limit...If I had to rate this puzzle, then it's a 1.25 just on the moves but if difficuly in finding the key breakthrough is taken into account then IMHO it's a 1.5
Walk-through by Caida http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4720#4720
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4727#4727
Walk-through by Andrew with some interesting combined cages http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4837#4837
Bored89-Easy(x-killer) by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4467#4467
Afmob wrote:I haven't solved it but tried and it seems to be at least as tough as A89
mhparker wrote:have been chipping away at it. Despite the name, it's actually proving to be quite a tough puzzle
sublue wrote:Bored89 Easy was too hard. So I looked at Bored89 Hard. Couldn't do that one either. ... It suddenly occurred to me that these 2 puzzles would have to have the same solution, since only N5 differed. So by comparing the two N5s I got a digit placed very easily. Suddenly I had a grip on the thing and was able to solve it (them) with only moderate annoyance
Andrew wrote:It is "Easy" but only after one finds the key move....I must admit that I was also struggling until I spotted step 3a..(which) isn't a difficult move but it's hard to spot. Obviously I can't take into account the time "wasted" before that step so I'll rate Bored89-Easy as a 1.25
mhparker wrote:this .. puzzle.. looked impossible at the beginning, due to the huge number of candidates still left after the (relatively few) preliminaries. There were also some good X-moves in there. The difficulty level was just right for me. As for the rating, I'll go along with Andrew's 1.25
sudokuEd wrote:Don't agree with 'easy' even with (Andrew's) step 3a. I managed to see that one early but still found it a really good tussle...All five of us agree on the rating of 1.25
Assassin 86Walk-through by Andrew including elims on diagonals because they are easy to overlook and including a puzzle design idea "trap" http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4493#4493
Walk-through by mhparker including a blockbuster hidden killer pair http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4496#4496
Afmob wrote: This killer was strange since it took me a long time to find the key moves although they were quite easy to see..Rating: 1.25. This assassin could be solved quite quickly if you find the right moves
mhparker wrote:This was a difficult puzzle, because there are 2 critical moves that are difficult to spot. If you don't get both of them, you'll have an exceedingly hard time solving this Assassin! I'm glad Afmob rated this puzzle as 1.25... However, because of the narrow solving path, some people may find it subjectively harder than that, or have difficulty completing the puzzle at all
gary w wrote:I'ld rate it about 1.25 again really based on time to complete..not very scientific I'll admit.!!Took me about 1.5 hours
Andrew wrote:It took me a very long time to spot.... the key move for this puzzle...any variant would almost certainly need to provide a similar step or it would risk becoming an Unsolvable
(unofficial) Assassin 95 (uA95) by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4788#4788Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4408#4408
Walk-through by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4409#4409
Outline steps by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4410#4410
Walk-through by Andrew, not one of his best, including CPE Killer pair (feedback from mhparker) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4414#4414
mhparker's discussion of key CPE move, gary w's chains reworded as AICs, analysis of overlapping cages used by Andrew (and lesser extent by Afmob)http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4415#4415
sudokuEd wrote:This puzzle has a ridiculously low SS(v3)score of 1.05. But it took about 6 sessions to finally find the 2 key moves...they are not hard moves, just very-hard-for-me to find. So, I give it a rating of 1.25
Afmob wrote:I agree with Ed that this Killer should be rated above 1.0. It took me some time to find step 5a (though the step itself is not difficult) Rating: (Easy) 1.25
gary w wrote:I'ld rate this as 1.25 at least..or maybe I'm out of practice!?
Andrew wrote:Afmob's steps 2d and 3b are the sort of steps that are so easy not to spot..Using an innie pair and an outie pair.. isn't a particularly common step. Steps 4a and 5c were also interesting. With those steps, together with Afmob saying that step 5a was difficult
to spot, I felt that it should have been rated 1.25 rather than (Easy) 1.25
mhparker wrote:I took a very similar route to Andrew..Despite avoiding a contradiction move, I would still go along with Andrew's rating of a typical 1.25, rather than an "easy 1.25"
Maverick 3 by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4513#4513Walk-through by AA (Addict Afmob) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4797#4797
Walk-through by Andrew including 1 contradiction move http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4819#4819
Alt steps 18+ using 2-cell ALS blocker by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4825#4825
2 more Alt steps 18+ by sudokuEd including Y-Wing http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4832#4832
Nasenbaer wrote:It consists only of 3-cell cages. I had a major problem with this design: the difficulty...But this one is a little higher: 1.5 on the RS(v2.2.3)-Scale (Richard's-SudokuSolver(v2.2.3)-Scale).I wanted to name it Spiral of Death (because of the way it winds around) or Exercise in innies/outies (because of the the most used technique)
Afmob wrote:Nice cage pattern! Rating:1.25 since there is only one key move (combo analysis) and M3 can be solved in a short way
Hatman wrote:I did not find it too difficult, but I like outies minus innies and I immediately noticed ..
mhparker wrote:after two medium-sized sessions, I seem to have ground to a halt Brick wall , and am in danger of having to give up due to a "time out" (a self-imposed limit of 30 minutes without any eliminations). It certainly feels like a 1.5 so far..finally did it, after having missed the key moves completely..Total time around 4 hours!! Shocked
Andrew wrote:The spiral was very obvious when I was colouring the cages in my worksheet...I found this puzzle definitely easier than A91 and didn't get stuck like I did for that one. I'll therefore rate M3 as a Hard 1.25
Assassin 85 (Suitable version)Polished WT without lots of small steps by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4524#4524
Walk-through without DJape lingo by Hatman http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4535#4535
Marks diagram by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4540#4540
Long walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4548#4548
Afmob wrote:This killer had some nice Killer quads you could use to speed things up. Rating: 1.25
Andrew wrote: Afmob's step 2d is a neat one! It's unusual to spot a step like that so early. A85 (the modified one) .. which I rate at 1.25
gary w wrote: Yes,the 2nd version was just a bit easier than the 1st !! I'ld go along with a 1.25 rating
Assassin 82Walk-through by Afmob with a bit of combo analysis http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4368#4368
Walk-through by Andrew with a killer single (step 3) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4373#4373
Outline of complex triple x-wing key move by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4383#4383
Discussion of Killer single terminology for a digit locked in two cages with a possible distribution of 1:0 or 0:1 by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4403#4403
Andrew wrote:This one felt a bit harder than last week so I'll rate it at 1.25
Afmob wrote:Rating: 1.25. It felt nearly as difficult as A81 but the moves I used here were more advanced
gary w wrote: Maybe I was lucky but this one turned out to be one of the easier ones for me..took about 45 mins to complete.I'ld rate it as 1.0 max
Assassin 84Walk-through by Andrew including cage over-lap and very different to Afmob's WT http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4279#4279
Walk-through by Afmob including Killer triple http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4280#4280
Outline by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4282#4282
Caida wrote: I would rate this a 1.25 - I don't think it was a particularly narrow solving path nor did I use any advanced techniques
Afmob wrote:Wow, this assassin had a lot of Killer pairs you could use and it was pretty stubborn before only singles were needed to solve it. Rating: 1.25
gary w wrote: Found this to be one of the easier assassins..took about 35-40 mins only
sudokuEd wrote:I seem to have found this Assassin a bit easier than Caida and Afmob... I'll give it a high 1.0. I never seemed to get stuck anywhere which I often do for 1.25 puzzles
Andrew wrote:I must admit that I did get stuck. After making good progress but ... I couldn't see what to do next. .For the reason given, I rate A84 at 1.25
mhparker wrote:Gary is correct. If you find the trick, you can start placing digits for this Assassin very quickly...it can all be done without any detailed combination work whatsoever
goooders wrote: unlike gary i stared at this puzzle for an hour then realised the "trick" and finished it very quickly so overall if it took an hour and a half i would say 1.25 on the "back of an envelope"
Afmob wrote:there are other factors which change the rating (difficulty of seeing a move, how narrow is the solving path, is it a "one-trick-pony" or does it need lots of difficult moves) but in my opinion they aren't as important as the difficulty of the moves...Gary used an impressive move which quite shortens the walkthrough but Killers of rating 0.75 don't need those moves
mhparker wrote:My personal gut feeling is that it's probably an easy 1.25, .. easier than most 1.25-rated Assassins, (because) the solving path is quite wide
Andrew wrote: As for rating A84 using Mike's explanation of Gary's trick, it's probably still an easy 1.25. Looking at Mike's 3 steps I don't see how it can be rated any lower
gary w wrote:I think a 1.25 rating is reasonable..I think I was just lucky to spot the short cut
(Unofficial) Assassin 96 V1.5 (UA96 V1.5) Killer-X by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4859#4859Walk-through by Caida http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4322#4322
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4330#4330
Walk-through by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4334#4334
Explanation of early placements by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4339#4339
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4340#4340
Strong interactions in gary w's 'trick' explained by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4345#4345
mhparker wrote:Est. rating: 1.5..SudokuSolver v3.0 scores this beauty at 1.83, but that's probably making a bit too much of a meal of it!
Afmob wrote:It seems Mike found another Killer where the SS rating is quite off..Rating: (Easy) 1.25. I used a Killer triple to crack it
Andrew wrote:I rate the way I solved this puzzle as Hard 1.25. However if the key move is used, then it becomes Easy 1.25 as rated by Afmob
_____________________________________________________Optimized walk-through by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4861#4861
Pre-optimized walk-through by Jean-Christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4861#4861
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4863#4863
Walk-through by Andrew without including URelims http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4867#4867
Rating 1.0
(Unofficial) Assassin 97 (UA 97) by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4876#4876
Afmob wrote:Here is the first Killer I've created and published so far..(Estimated) Rating: SudokuSolver rates this one 0.96 but it can be solved in an easier way
Nasenbaer wrote:It took me a lot longer than I had thought. Somehow I always got sidetracked..with all the the things I might not have needed
sudokuEd wrote:I'd call this one a hard 1.0 rating since it took a long time to find my break-through. Not the type of move I look for very early. But admittedly, not that difficult
Jean-Christophe wrote:I personally did not found it really hard. I would even say it's easy if you're familiar with Kakuro
gary w wrote:I found this one fairly easy.Took me 35 minutes to complete which was OK,long enough for a Saturday evening!!If we rate the Times "deadly" killers as about 0.5 I'ld say this one is about 0.75
Andrew wrote:I also found uA97 hard going (I guess my "killer brain" had partly switched off!) until I realised that hidden cages .. can be used for clashes ... rather than just for clean-up eliminations. Then I restarted and found it a straightforward puzzle. Based on my re-worked solution I'll rate.. uA97 at 1.0
Assassin 87Walk-through the way he solved it by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4879#4879
Walk-through that gets straight to the break-through by sudokuEd http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4884#4884
Walk-through by Jean-christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4885#4885
Walk-through by Andrew including comments on in-line IOUs http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4925#4925
mhparker wrote:progression possible in big leaps and bounds. Rating: 1.0 ? Edit: Just seen that SS rates this at 1.88! Shocked
Afmob wrote:Like Mike I'm surprised that SS rated this one so high...Rating: Hard 1.0. I thought about rating it 1.25 but we had enough of them already Wink
Andrew wrote:there seems to be a general direction that has to be followed although it's definitely not a narrow solving path and not hard to find..Afmob also had interesting steps 1a, 1b and 5a. I'm not sure between hard 1.0 and easier 1.25 but I think I'll rate A87 an easier 1.25 for the way I solved it. However I'm expecting Ed to rate it 1.0 because of the key step that I missed.
Andrew wrote:ratings shouldn't be influenced by which ones are more common..typical Assassins, apart from the early ones, will normally be rated 1.25 so there will be more of that rating than anything else
Caida wrote:I didn't find it too difficult (once I drew the cages correctly)..I'd give it a rating of 1.25 - not bad - but not incredibly easy
gary w wrote:Well I know everything seems to be rated 1.25 these days but I'ld have to rate this one about.....1.25.It was roughly as difficult as many recent ones,I certainly found it no easier...Took about 2 hours...long enough !!!
Assassin 2X Lite (A2X-Lite) http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4229#4229Walk-through by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4420#4420
Walk-through by Afmob - similiar key moves to mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4421#4421
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4424#4424
Walk-through by Caida with a 7 in the bottom right corner http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4428#4428
mhparker wrote: Est. rating: 1.25
Caida wrote:much easier (than A2X) - nicer for my first attempt at a "Killer-X". I would consider rating A2XLite a 1.0
Nasenbaer wrote:Yes, A2X-Lite is much easier
Andrew wrote: I'd originally been thinking of rating it as an easier 1.25 but ..I'll make it a high 1.0
Assassin 81Reworked Walk-through by Caida http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4231#4231
Walk-through by Nasenbaer with lots of jumping around http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4233#4233
Reworked Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4252#4252
Nasenbaer wrote:an easy start which made me overconfident so I didn't take full notes... I would name it a 1.25...(but) I missed a major move in
Afmob wrote:This was an easy but nonetheless fun assassin. I was quite suprised that I could make some placements right from the start. Rating: 1.0. Only (simple) Innies+Outies and Killer pairs were needed to solve this one
Caida wrote:I found this one not too difficult - but it required (at least for me) some significant combo crunching. I'd rate it a 1.25
gary w wrote:not too many innies and outies which have been necessary lately. Not too difficult..??? about 1.25??
Andrew wrote: I had another look at innies/outies and managed to find the key one ... It definitely makes the solution quicker and easier. I therefore rate A81 as 1.0
mhparker wrote: did this one on paper using only rough pencilmarks, working out any necessary combinations by hand. So it can't be rated any higher than 1.0. And despite it being "easy", I still got stuck in a couple of places trying to find that "obvious" way forward...
Walk-through by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4243#4243
Walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4244#4244
Walk-through by Caida http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4245#4245
Outline by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4250#4250
Walk-through by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4275#4275
Special: Windoku-Killer 1 by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4882#4882
Nasenbaer wrote:Rating: I really don't know. ... Oh, one more thing one or the other might frown upon: you will need uniqueness to place the last numbers
Afmob wrote:I'm not a fan of uniqueness moves and this puzzle confirmed my opinion. I would accept them if otherwise there would be no solution but in this case without the UR there would be multiple solutions which are valid so I think they are also part of the final solution
Afmob wrote: Rating: (Hard) 1.0. The moves itself weren't difficult (apart from the UR) but I haven't solved a Windoku before so I made some false eliminations a couple of times
Jean-Christophe wrote:Uniqueness can be used only for grids with a unique solution which is not the case for this grid since it has 3 solutions. Confused i.e. this grid is invalid
sublue wrote:I really liked this puzzle until I got to the last 6 cells. There are 3 solutions as Afmob noted. I don't think that Uniqueness can be used to eliminate 2 of the solutions. I'd like to see another one of this type of puzzle
Nasenbaer wrote:(because of the additional constraints) .. The next one will be posted there (ie posted in the Puzzle section (Forum))
http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4936#4936
Unofficial Assassin 99 (UA 99) by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5008#5008Walk-through by Afmob including the 3 possible solutions http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4887#4887
Explanation about making a windoku killer by Nasenbaer http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4934#4934
Afmob wrote:This assassin should warm you up on basic killer techniques.Estimated rating: 0.75 - 1.0; SS Score: 0.93
Andrew wrote: this puzzle didn't require such (any difficult) moves. I'll rate uA99 at 1.0; there was enough work the way I did it
gary w wrote:Took me 45-50 mins and I'ld rate it about 0.75.I think it's just the sort of level of difficulty that the forum needs now and then to bring in new people who may not be quite ready for the 1.25-1.5 mind-benders
mhparker wrote:I'll go along with Andrew's rating of 1.0
_____________________________________________________Walk-through by Andrew avoiding any difficult moves http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5011#5011
Outline by gary w http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5013#5013
Relaxing walk-through by mhparker http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5014#5014
Rating 0.75
Yet Another Killer #96 (Unofficial Assassin 96) by Jean-christophe http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4846#4846
Jean-Christophe wrote:rating "much too easy for regular members"..SudokuSolver v3.0 scores: V1: 0.90
Afmob wrote:I think V1 is neither "reasonably hard" nor tricky. It can be solved using a (very) basic Killer technique..Rating: 0.75-1.0. I used a Killer pair to crack it. I am not sure about the rating since I've never rated such an easy puzzle
Jean-Christophe wrote:I personally would not qualify "(very) basic" such techniques as killer naked pair or combination conflicts like you used. Also consider the number of In/outies with three cells in this puzzle, most useless at first
Andrew wrote:Using elimination solving, YAK96 was an easy puzzle. I expect it could still be solved fairly easily without using elimination solving. This puzzle only requires one killer pair ..(which can be spotted even without using elimination solving)..and a few simple 45s so I'll rate it at 0.75
gary w wrote:I certainly wouldn't say v1 was "much too easy" for regular assassinators....Took me over an hour so I'ld rate it as harder than virtually all the "deadly" killers that appear in The Times..0.75??
PB (from UA93) shortest walk-through by Afmob http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4850#4850
One of his shortest walk-throughs by Andrew http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4853#4853