The Doppit Almanac · No. 15

Sandit, a daily Suguru

Regions hold 1 to N, equals never touch

What it is

Sandit is Suguru by its house name. The grid breaks into small outlined sections, and each section of N squares holds the digits 1 to N, once each. A section of a single square is always a 1, and a pair is always 1 and 2.

The second law does the damage: equal digits never touch, not even at a corner. Two rules, nothing else. Most of the game is noticing how they conspire: the count offers a square two digits, a twin next door bars one of them, and the matter is settled.

How it plays

Two laws govern the whole dune.

• A five-square section uses the digits 1 to 5, and no digit repeats inside a section.
• The same digit never sits in touching squares, diagonals included; a diagonal alone is enough to bar it.
• Grey digits are given and stay where they are; clashes glow red until you settle them.

The difficulties

The sand comes in four grains. Easy brushes off in thirty seconds to a minute. Medium takes one to three minutes of corner-watching. Hard is three to six minutes and keeps its firm footing hidden until late. A new grid is sifted out every day, for nothing.

Expert is a fourth weight, kept for practice play. It is the same nine by nine grid as hard, but testing one square's digits in your head will not close it. The four squares of any two-by-two block all touch each other, so they hold four different digits. A section also has to fit each of its digits somewhere, so a square touching every place its 3 could still go is not a 3. Pencil both into the notes, and squares start coming down to a single digit. Six to ten minutes.

Nearby in the almanac: Groveit, Summit and Rankit