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The funny thing about this Assassin is that it was quite hard to find a fitting V1 since I created the forthcoming V2 first (in about 15 minutes) but it took me nearly 1 and a half hour to find a suitable V1. I created this Assassin around the two "remote" cages (not really remote if you look around the corner), the center Nonet and those T-shaped cages at N2 and N8. I hope you recognize the symmetry of this Killer.

Assassin 106



Note the two "remote" cages at R1C19 = 10(2) and R9C19 = 9(2).

3x3::k:2560:2817:3842:3842:6148:2309:2309:2309:2560:4873:2817:2817:3842:6148:6148:6415:6415:6415:4873:2579:3092:3092:6148:4119:4119:2841:6415:4873:2579:3092:3102:6687:6687:2841:2841:5667:4132:4132:2854:3102:6687:1833:2841:5667:5667:4132:2854:2854:6687:6687:1833:3891:3124:3893:4406:2854:2616:2616:5690:3891:3891:3124:3893:4406:4406:4406:5690:5690:4932:3909:3909:3893:2376:3913:3913:3913:5690:4932:4932:3909:2376:

Solution:

9 7 8 5 6 4 2 3 1
5 1 3 2 9 8 7 6 4
6 4 2 3 1 7 9 5 8
8 6 7 4 5 3 1 2 9
4 9 5 8 2 1 3 7 6
3 2 1 9 7 6 4 8 5
2 3 9 1 8 5 6 4 7
1 8 6 7 4 2 5 9 3
7 5 4 6 3 9 8 1 2

SS Score (v3.2): 1.34
Estimated rating: 1.25.

V2 will be posted when someone has volunteered for A107.

Thanks Afmob for a fun puzzle!

It's good to be able to post the first walkthrough, which I rarely manage to do on the day that a puzzle appears. Puzzles by Afmob obviously give me a better chance to be first. It's also helpful to be in North America for easier puzzles.

I'll rate A106 at 1.0. I think that's a valid rating for step 1.

Here is my walkthrough. I only used one 45, discarding a couple of routine ones after I found step 1 fairly quickly. My mop-up was fairly routine; I expect there are quicker ways to do it but I didn't try to optimise it. Thanks Afmob for pointing out what I missed at the beginning. I've added them in blue but not amended my walkthrough since they wouldn't make it significantly quicker.

Prelims

a) R1C19 wrap-around cage = {19/28/37/46}, no 5
b) R34C2 = {19/28/37/46}, no 5
c) R3C67 = {79}, locked for R3, clean-up: no 1,3 in R4C2
d) R45C4 = {39/48/57}, no 1,2,6
e) R56C6 = {16/25/34}, no 7,8,9
f) R67C8 = {39/48/57}, no 1,2,6
g) R7C34 = {19/28/37/46}, no 5
h) R9C19 wrap-around cage = {18/27/36/45}, no 9
i) 11(3) cage at R1C2 = {128/137/146/236/245}, no 9
j) R1C678 = {126/135/234}, no 7,8,9
k) R234C1 = {289/379/469/478/568}, no 1
l) 22(3) cage in N6 = {589/679}, 9 locked for N6, clean-up: no 3 in R7C8
m) 19(3) cage at R8C6 = {289/379/469/478/568}, no 1
n) 11(4) cage at R3C8 = {1235}, CPE no 5 in R5C8
o) 11(4) cage at R5C3 = {1235}, CPE no 1,2,3,5 in R5C2
I missed no 3,5 in R6C8 in n) and no 2 in R4C2 in o); these would both have had clean-ups if I'd included them.

1. 45 rule on C1234 2 innies R68C4 = 2 wrap-round outies R19C9 + 13
1a. Min R19C9 = 3 -> minR68C4 = 16 -> R68C4 = {79/89}, 9 locked for C4, clean-up: no 3 in R45C4, no 1 in R7C3
1b. Max R68C4 = 17 -> max R19C9 = 4 -> R19C9 = {12/13}, 1 locked for C9, R1C1 = {789}, R9C1 = {678}
1c. R19C9 = [12/13/31] (cannot be [21] because R19C1 cannot be [88]), R19C1 = [97/96/78], no 8 in R1C1, no 2 in R1C9

2. R234C1 = {469/478/568} (cannot be {289} which clashes with R19C1, cannot be {379} which clashes with R1C1), no 2,3

3. Killer pair 6,7 in R19C1 and R234C1, locked for C1
3a. Killer pair 8,9 in R19C1 and R234C1, locked for C1

4. Naked quint {12345} in R5C13 and R6C123, locked for N4, clean-up: no 6,8 in R3C2
[If I’d spotted 4 in N6 locked in R6C789, locked for R6, this would have fixed R5C1 = 4 here.]

5. 4 in N4 locked in R56C1, locked for C1
5a. R234C1 = {568} (only remaining combination), locked for C1, 5 locked for N1 -> R19C1 = [97], R19C9 = [12], clean-up: no 3 in R7C4

6. 16(3) cage in N4 = {349} (only remaining combination containing 4) -> R5C2 = 9, naked pair {34} in R56C1, locked for C1 and N4, clean-up: no 1 in R3C2
6a. Naked triple {678} in R4C123, locked for R4, clean-up: no 4,5 in R5C4

7. R7C2 = 3 (hidden single in 11(4) cage at R5C3), clean-up: no 7 in R4C2, no 7 in R7C4

8. R4C3 = 7 (hidden single in R4)
8a. R4C9 = 9 (hidden single in N6)

9. R1C678 = {234} (only remaining combination), locked for R1

10. 7 in N1 locked in R12C2 -> 11(3) cage = {137} -> R1C2 = 7, R2C23 = [13]

11. R3C23 = {24} (hidden pair in N1), locked for R3

12. 12(3) cage at R3C3 = {147/237}
12a. R3C3 = {24} -> R3C4 = {13}

13. 15(3) cage at R1C3 = {258/456} (cannot be {267} because 2,7 only in R2C4), no 7
13a. 2,4 only in R2C4 -> R2C4 = {24}, R1C4 = 5, R4C4 = 4, R5C4 = 8, R2C4 = 2, R1C3 = 8 (step 13), R1C5 = 6, clean-up: no 3 in R56C6, no 2,6 in R7C3

14. 22(3) cage in N6 = {679} (only remaining combination), no 5, naked pair {67} in R5C89, locked for R5 and N6, clean-up: no 1 in R6C6, no 5 in R7C8

15. Naked pair {12} in R78C1, locked for N7 and 17(4) cage -> R8C23 = 14 = [59/86], no 4, no 6 in R8C2, no 5 in R8C3

16. 6,8 in N2 locked in 24(4) cage = {1689/3678}, no 4
16a. 1,3 only in R3C5 -> R3C5 = {13}
16b. Naked pair {13} in R3C45, locked for R3 and N2 -> R1C6 = 4, R3C8 = 5, R23C1 = [56], R3C9 = 8, R4C12 = [86], R3C2 = 4, R3C3 = 2, R3C4 = 3 (step 12), R3C5 = 1, clean-up: no 7 in R2C56 (step 16), no 7 in R7C8

17. R3C6 = 7 (hidden single in N2), R3C7 = 9

18. 5 in N6 locked in R6C79, locked for R6 -> R6C23 = [21], R5C3 = 5, R6C6 = 6, R5C6 = 1

19. 3 in C9 locked in R678C9 = {357} (only remaining combination), locked for C9, 7 locked for N9 -> R5C89 = [76], R2C789 = [764]

20. Naked pair {23} in R5C57, locked for R5 -> R56C1 = [43], R6C9 = 5, R78C9 = [73], clean-up: no 9 in R7C8

21. Naked pair {23} in R15C7, locked for C7 -> R4C7 = 1
21a. Naked pair {48} in R67C8, locked for C8
21b. R89C8 = {19} -> R8C7 = 5 (cage sum), R8C2 = 8, R8C3 = 6 (step 15)
21c. R9C2 = 5, R9C34 = 10 = [46] (cannot be [91] which clashes with R9C8)

and the rest is naked singles and a cage sum

The final edit was just to convert this walkthrough to normal text.

Hi

I agree with Andrew. I did about the same as Andrew. And yeah, you just need to spot Andrews first step (although i used 4 innies) and it's not really hard from there on.

Para

Many thanks to Afmob for another enjoyable puzzle.

Thought my step 2 would be Andrew's step 1 that he and others were talking about, which proved not to be the case. Unfortunately, my step 2 didn't get me as far as I would have liked.

I'll rate this puzzle, as Afmob did, as 1.25. A rating of 1.0 seems a bit low for a puzzle requiring(?) killer triples and/or quads.

Looking forward (with some trepidation...) to the V2. In the meantime, here's my V1 WT:

Edit: Small typo fixed, as pointed out by Andrew (thanks!).


P.S. Good to see you back around, Para!

_________________
Cheers,
Mike

As usual, Para gets the 'just', just right! So, congrats to Andrew for getting this key move so quickly and making it look very pedestrian in an excellent Walkthrough . I didn't get it so quickly and missed (my path's equivalent to) Andrew's step 4 ( ). So, I'll invoke the "narrow" clause in the ratings and call this one a 1.25. It seemed way harder than A104 or Messy One #1 for example, both of which got a 1.0 rating from respondents.

Will be interested if others found the same narrowness.

I really enjoyed the remote cages in this one. Thanks for another fun innovation Afmob!

Cheers
Ed

Here is the original or first Assassin I created for this week but judging by SS score it was too hard, so I created V1 afterwards. I checked through a lot of Innies+Outies and this one shouldn't fall so fast and should provide a good practice for your creativity.

Assassin 106 V2



Note the two "remote" cages at R19C1 = 10(2) and R19C9 = 13(2).

3x3::k:2560:7169:2818:2818:6660:2565:2565:2565:3336:7169:7169:7169:6660:6660:2318:2318:3856:3856:3090:7169:4628:4628:6660:2318:3608:3608:3856:3090:3090:4628:2846:2846:7712:3608:3362:3362:4132:2341:2341:7712:7712:7712:1322:1322:3362:4132:4132:3375:7712:1073:1073:4403:4148:4148:5174:3375:3375:3897:4154:4403:4403:7229:4148:5174:5174:3897:3897:4154:4154:7229:7229:7229:2560:2377:2377:2377:4154:4429:4429:7229:3336:

Solution:

4 6 8 3 5 1 7 2 9
5 1 9 7 8 2 3 4 6
2 7 3 9 6 4 1 8 5
1 9 6 4 7 8 5 3 2
3 2 7 6 9 5 4 1 8
8 5 4 2 1 3 9 6 7
7 8 1 5 4 6 2 9 3
9 4 2 8 3 7 6 5 1
6 3 5 1 2 9 8 7 4

SS Score (v3.2): 2.15
Estimated rating: 1.5 - (Hard) 1.5.

Yes,V1 was a good puzzle.I too used
c1234 outies > r68c4=r19c9+13 > r19c9=3/4 > r19c1=15/16>r5678c1=10/11=123 4/5
with the 11(4) cage in n4 and the 16(3) cage in n4 there's then only the possibility that the 1 in c1 is at r78 and that r7c2=3 and it's cracked now.

Regards

Gary

Didn't take long to do...< 1 hour ..but it seems quite a tricky move to find.1.25??

I'm hopeless at doing walkthroughs I tried and failed twice on sudocue(tiny text). Anyway I thought that was about 1.25 to 1.5. Theres three nonets which have a weakness and then it falls over attrition wise .The question I have is this .I like killersudokuonlines weekly offering because it can always be solved by logic (ie not attrition) The cage sizes are much bigger . I think only Gary has referred to them .Also some of ND,s killers have similarly large cage sizes and fall by logic not attrition.Probably this is the wrong place to raise the issue(logic v attrition) anyway I did

Goooders, are you talking about V1 or V2? Both can be solved using logic only (whatever that means) and even V2 didn't require any contradiction moves or chains.

OK I accept that intellectually killers are solved by logic if each cage has all numbers 1 to 9 enumerated and bit by bit they get chipped away .I think all I am trying to say is that there is much more satisfaction if killers can be solved by "putting numbers in rather than taking them away" I couldnt do this with your V2.Row 1 column 9 had three options .Thereafter there is a "tree diagram" of options.I think thats all I am saying By the way thanks for producing such brilliant puzzles