Dr. Sudoku Prescribes #58 – Fillomino
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to alternate between a composite mode for line/edge drawing and a number entry mode.)
Theme: Rough Diamond, or Diamond in the Rough?
Rules: Standard Fillomino rules.
Answer String: For each cell in the marked rows/columns, enter the area of the polyomino it belongs to. Start with the 9th row, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th column.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:45, Master = 4:00, Expert = 8:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other classic Fillomino and this link for more variations on Fillomino puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Fillomino puzzles to get started on.
So what’s your take on the place of intuition on puzzles like this? I’ve been trying to keep myself limited to finding the logical steps and not making a mark until I know there’s a sound reason for it, but on this puzzle I ended up making a few calls where it just felt like this was where things should go to fit. I figure this is likely to get me into trouble in other cases, and has caused me fits in a couple of puzzles over on the LMI Marathon. Any advice on knowing where to draw the line on going with instinct vs. following a hunch?
Rough as hell. Loved the challenge.There is a logic that we all hate.So count your way through this.
I’d almost always stick with instinct until you think you are good enough at fixing broken puzzles to go with your hunches. You sometimes learn from your hunches but are rarely 100% correct.
Here, there are some uncommon things to do logically that should force a kind of counter-clockwise solve. The center of the diamond is unusual and needs your attention as it connects into each of the outer regions.
I’m glad I logicked through this one. There was some counting, but I found in the end that most of it was superfluous. Mostly I try to use my hunches to guide where I look for logical steps: “Seems like this has to go here (hunch), so what happens if it doesn’t? Ah, that leads to this contradiction, therefore my guess was right, but now I’m sure (logic).”
Yes. This seems to be how I solve Fillominoes too (and therefore how I construct them). Most of the less common deductions are things you can test in your head without writing on paper, to find why something does or does not have to happen.
This one was basically all logic, and that tends to work for Fillomino.
I definitely think the balance between intuition and logic can vary with puzzle type. In puzzles like Numberlink there tends to be a lot of “feel” informed by some logic. The LMI marathon was interesting in that respect. It’s still active, so I’m not going to say anything detailed, but while some puzzles were very small-scale logic oriented, you needed some creativity and “feel” for other puzzles. On a puzzle that big, you definitely can feel nervous going out on a limb with something that isn’t rigorously logical, but my favorite puzzle on the test was probably the one where I spent the first 20 minutes wondering how it was possibly going to have a unique solution.
4:03.
Well I solved it in clockwise fashion actually. Or more like branching from top to each of left and right, meeting at bottom-left. I certainly should have counted first. The logic with the lower-right 2 needing to go right broke the puzzle, although there are still some uncommon steps required.
27 mins 33 s .Too slow .I cannot cite lack of practice here because i have attempted fillomino puzzles before and they are not new to me.
Interesting that the question of intuition vs logic has been raised.In my case the intuition factor has never ever been applied once in any puzzle type,that i have begun to seriously doubt whether something called an intuition exists when solving puzzles.To me intuition sounds nothing more than guess to me.If intuiton is something which means to go along a particular solving route until a contradiction is obtained then the definition is breached and it falls under the logic category.
So what does this intuition mean in the end? Maybe i will get to know some day 🙁
Intuition in puzzle solving is usually more than just guesswork… It’s more like the subconscious mind has jumped ahead in the solve and is telling you “this polyomino has to go this way” well before the conscious mind can see any logical foundation for such a placement.
– Neelix
10:07