Is the calcudoku the same concept as killer sudoku where as in if you have a sum in a outlined box for example - you have 5 empty spaces in a cross shape with a total Number being 336x, Are you allowed to use the same number twice in that Section as long as they don't end up on the same line ? So. 3x7=21. 21x2=42 42x4=168. 168x2= 336. For this I have used 2 twice, but before I continue on, I wanted to check in case I end up wasting a lot of time lol

Thanks for any responses in advance.

Yes, you can have duplicate numbers in the cage, as long as they aren't in the same row or column.

(outlined box == cage)
(your example is a product, to be precise )


(note that this is different from Killer Sudoku, where a cage may not have duplicate numbers,
regardless of its shape)

This particular pattern for the 9 x 9 makes this one of the more difficult puzzles.

Tues 9 x 9s are usually one of the more challenging puzzles of the week, along with the difficult Killer Sudoku (KS) on Friday.

I thought Patrick once said we would see this 9 x 9 pattern about twice a year. I believe this is the fifth time we have had this pattern since Jan 1, 2019.

I have to confess that I cringed a bit when I saw the pattern of today's puzzle. I think this is the hardest pattern used for the Tuesday 9x9 and therefore one of the hardest puzzles we see each year. I managed to solve it with less difficulty than I was expecting, but I was quite relieved to do so!

Patrick, I'd be interested to see the stats on how many times on average this particular pattern has been solved this year and how this compares with the more usual pattern.

Thanks for the correct terminology master 'doku' lol
I have only yesterday come across this game,

Also while your here- what's up with the 8x8 hard difficulty calcudoku ?

There are 'cages' with a total number 151 and 71 without any multiplication ? What is the purpose of this ?

Those cages use the bitwise OR operator. What you are interpreting as 1 is, in fact, l (the letter that comes between k and m).

There's a link at the bottom of the puzzle to an explanation of how this operator works, but it basically involves converting numbers to their binary equivalents - 7 is 111 and 8 is 1000.

Yes, it's that operator, but the "1" is the vertical bar symbol ( | ),
a common symbol for bitwise OR.

(on US layout keyboards it's on the key right above the Enter key)

For this puzzle, I had trouble getting my brain wrapped around combinations for 336, so I looked for combinations for 254,016(336*756).

You honestly should have typed in Chinese because I would have understand more I think I'll stick to easy and medium for the time being

I learned something new today!