# Thoughts on Puzzle 30 **URL:** \ **Category:** \[Ended\] Hack the Galaxy šŸŖ\ **Created:** [September 1, 2022, 9:27am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461 "2022-09-01T09:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlexM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@AlexM](https://community.rapyd.net/u/AlexM)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/22 "2022-09-01T19:23:20Z")
Thanks will try to do it again lol ---
**Author:** ![MarcinJ13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@MarcinJ13](https://community.rapyd.net/u/MarcinJ13)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/23 "2022-09-01T19:25:54Z")
Now my take on this puzzle: I found it easier than others as it didnā€™t rely on knowledge of obscure english words. Easiest to implement are rules 1 and 5 But the most important clues are 6 and 11. Think about all combinations that result in right number of letters. ---
**Author:** ![marinamvt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@marinamvt](https://community.rapyd.net/u/marinamvt)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/24 "2022-09-01T19:28:55Z")
I was so sure I had it, but then my sudoku had multiple possible solutions AND none of the letters that came out formed anything close to a wordā€¦ I made a totally wild guess based on a combination of nonsensical answers I got and it happened to be it!! Iā€™m going to try reverse-solving it tomorrow now that I know some actual guaranteed numbers šŸ˜… ---
**Author:** ![Katie394](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/katie394/32/22698_2.png) [@Katie394](https://community.rapyd.net/u/Katie394)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/25 "2022-09-01T23:48:29Z")
Can someone who has solved it confirm the clues are all correct? I keep getting to a point where a one clue contradicts another or break the basic rules of suduko!! ---
**Author:** ![Hoodiehugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@Hoodiehugs](https://community.rapyd.net/u/Hoodiehugs)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 4:48am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/26 "2022-09-02T04:48:26Z")
All the clues are correct. I solved it. And none of the rules of sudoku are broken. ---
**Author:** ![igorgetmeabrain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/igorgetmeabrain/32/14926_2.png) [@igorgetmeabrain](https://community.rapyd.net/u/igorgetmeabrain)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/27 "2022-09-02T16:58:20Z")
According to the schedule, this puzzle closes on 4 Sep. Can anyone tell me exactly when the deadline is please? It would be useful for me to know how long I have left to figure it out, as I have a busy weekend ahead! ---
**Author:** ![GarlicSwindler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@GarlicSwindler](https://community.rapyd.net/u/GarlicSwindler)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/28 "2022-09-02T21:12:01Z")
I believe itā€™s midnight GMT ---
**Author:** ![Livi1010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@Livi1010](https://community.rapyd.net/u/Livi1010)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/29 "2022-09-03T00:32:30Z")
Same here I have read the instructions over and over again and I just donā€™t understand. I started to cry last night haha so I had to put it away. I donā€™t even know where to begin ---
**Author:** ![Piacular](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Piacular](https://community.rapyd.net/u/Piacular)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 2:58am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/30 "2022-09-03T02:58:41Z")
This is pretty rough, ngl. Iā€™m slightly too dumb (or too lazy) to figure out the givens, all Iā€™ve got is F so far, but Iā€™m stuck with the rest. Instead, I tried to write a program to print out all the possible combinations of the possible letter combinations for the 9 values, but there are 387,420,489 of them and itā€™s just not feasible to sort through that way QQ ---
**Author:** ![KreherFA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/kreherfa/32/12655_2.png) [@KreherFA](https://community.rapyd.net/u/KreherFA)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 3:26am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/31 "2022-09-03T03:26:50Z")
I also wrote a code to determine all possible letter combinations, if you write it right, I can promise you, you can get a lot less than 387,420,489 (which also happens to be 9^9). ---
**Author:** ![Piacular](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Piacular](https://community.rapyd.net/u/Piacular)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 3:31am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/32 "2022-09-03T03:31:02Z")
Yeah, Iā€™m sure thereā€™s a way to filter out unreasonable letter combinations (ie, no word starts with ā€œcgā€ but Iā€™m not a good enough coder to do that yet. lol ---
**Author:** ![KreherFA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/kreherfa/32/12655_2.png) [@KreherFA](https://community.rapyd.net/u/KreherFA)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 3:39am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/33 "2022-09-03T03:39:52Z")
Itā€™s a lot easier than that. I spent 2-3 hours by hand the night it came out, no progress at all, woke up the morning of, solved it in less than 5 minutes using code. I believe you can do it! ---
**Author:** ![Piacular](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Piacular](https://community.rapyd.net/u/Piacular)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/34 "2022-09-03T06:38:15Z")
GOT IT! =D Iā€™m going to slowly peel myself out of this chair now. XD ---
**Author:** ![igorgetmeabrain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/igorgetmeabrain/32/14926_2.png) [@igorgetmeabrain](https://community.rapyd.net/u/igorgetmeabrain)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 9:18am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/35 "2022-09-03T09:18:58Z")
Iā€™m brute forcing the diagonal with code todayā€¦ Whilst there are 9^9 possible letter combinations, that can be significantly pared down before you even start. I have a list of 9-letter words from the official US Scrabble dictionary, which Iā€™ve also pared down to around 4500 possibles. Stick it in an array and iterate with possible letter combinationsā€¦ Iā€™ll let you know if it works! EDIT: Much to my surpriseā€¦ it worked! Iā€™ve entered a correct solution. Iā€™ll now try to solve the rest of the puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![MarcinJ13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@MarcinJ13](https://community.rapyd.net/u/MarcinJ13)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 2:46pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/36 "2022-09-03T14:46:57Z")
I agree with igorgetmeabrain: I limited it to one by solving sudoku and it was very easy then šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![gwarbeh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/gwarbeh/32/8641_2.png) [@gwarbeh](https://community.rapyd.net/u/gwarbeh)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 3:24pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/37 "2022-09-03T15:24:34Z")
No, you are not dense. You are onto something! Yes, for 3 givens to add to 25, youā€™d have to break Sudoku logic. Look real closely at the givens. Iā€™m sure youā€™ll see it. ---
**Author:** ![gwarbeh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/gwarbeh/32/8641_2.png) [@gwarbeh](https://community.rapyd.net/u/gwarbeh)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/38 "2022-09-03T15:31:09Z")
Right, there are ways to satisfy the listed rules while violating Sudoku logic. But there is a solution that fits everything. ---
**Author:** ![gwarbeh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/gwarbeh/32/8641_2.png) [@gwarbeh](https://community.rapyd.net/u/gwarbeh)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 3:33pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/39 "2022-09-03T15:33:24Z")
Agreed. Putting 6 and 11 together sets up a limited number of cases you need to explore. Then you can just run them down checking for inconsistencies until you find the right one. ---
**Author:** ![tojot](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/tojot/32/7782_2.png) [@tojot](https://community.rapyd.net/u/tojot)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/40 "2022-09-03T18:05:50Z")
Totally agree. On most of the obscure english puzzles I code something to just get the answer, and spend time on crossword helper pages. I guess the only recent exception were the rockets, where almost all english world were common. For this one I sure could code something, but I had actual fun just solving it manually, with a spreadsheet as a my editor of choice for taking notes. Yes, it took a lot of iterations, but it was a lot of actual fun. Same with the sudoku itself, and ir was a pretty classic, with no need for any advanced elimination techniques. I wish for more puzzles like this, where the weight is on the actual solving, and not on flexing the english dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![KreherFA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.rapyd.net/kreherfa/32/12655_2.png) [@KreherFA](https://community.rapyd.net/u/KreherFA)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461/41 "2022-09-04T00:16:42Z")
YAY great job! Glad you got it! [Previous page](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461.md?page=1) [Next page](https://community.rapyd.net/t/thoughts-on-puzzle-30/55461.md?page=3)