Sudoku and Fillomino are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Fillomino is distant to Sudoku. Below we lay out what the two share, where they part ways, and whether the skills you have built on Sudoku will carry over.
- Grid: Rectangular
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
- Also called: Allied Occupation
What is Fillomino?
Divide the grid into regions so that each number sits in a region of exactly that many cells, and no two same-size regions touch. Here are the rules in full:
- Split the whole grid into regions; every cell of a region shows the region's size.
- Two regions of the same size may not share an edge.
- Empty cells are filled in to complete the regions.
See a Fillomino grid
Fillomino divides the grid into regions where every cell shows the size of its region, and no two regions of the same size may touch. Below, a region of three 3s sits beside a region of two 2s.
Three 3s form one region; two 2s another; a lone 1 its own — same-size regions never touch.
Both carve the grid into regions under strict rules and reason by logic alone, and both use "same value can't touch" thinking — here for region sizes, in Sudoku for digits. But the numbers describe region sizes, not values placed once per line, and there are no rows, columns or boxes. A distant cousin.
What Fillomino shares with Sudoku
- Both carve the grid into regions under strict rules and are solved by logic alone.
- Both use "same value can't touch" reasoning — here for region sizes, in Sudoku for digits.
How Fillomino differs from Sudoku
- The numbers describe region sizes, not values placed once per line.
- There are no rows, columns or fixed boxes to satisfy.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
The mechanics differ, but the "equal things must stay apart" logic echoes Sudoku's no-repeat rule, and the same careful case-checking cracks both.
The verdict
Fillomino borrows Sudoku's "same value can't touch" idea for region sizes, but it's a partitioning puzzle at heart.