Puzzle 353 Sudoku

Sometimes it turns out that you aren't always everyone's flavour of the month.  As always,  I suppose I'll have to make my own fun, and as always I am very grateful for the company of my dearest readers.

So here the intended idea is a little bit obscured by having to add in a couple more givens than I'd have liked, in order to guarantee uniqueness.  This unfortunately gives a few easy-ish placements to start off, maybe lulling you into a false sense of security.  Which is a pity for the flow of the puzzle, but such is life.

Anyhow all I'll say with this puzzle is that if you're looking for dead-or-alive ambiguity you'll know it when you see it, dearest reader.  After that the puzzle will flow quite nicely, even if I do say so myself.  Enjoy!

    #353 Sudoku – rated 9/10 [Very Hard]

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-20.

Puzzle 352 Sudoku

So here's a puzzle with an idea on a recent theme.  I'd say the execution is reasonably good, but as I'm working mostly by hand it doesn't quite feel polished to its true potential.  It's still doable if you don't get the idea, but fair warning, it might be a bit of a slog.  Failing that it's probably very guessable.  But I have more faith in you than that, dearest reader.  Enjoy!

   #352 Sudoku – rated 8/10 [Very Hard]

Update: I might downgrade this from a 9 to an 8 as I've just realised the intended pattern used is very similar to the original Phistomefel pattern, which perhaps is a bit easier to spot and make use of...

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-20.