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I wonder if anyone noticed what's special about this puzzle.

Number: Puzzle #2215
Genre: Kakuro
Author: Bram
Appeared at: December 16, 2010

Thanks. Like the opening on the left, just took a while to fit the rest to avoid opening it somewhere else and get it unique.
I always think it's a danger with harder puzzles that it's easier to resort to uniqueness eliminations. Not necessary for the design, but I can see some points where they would be helpful.

I asked about the rating as I wasn't really sure about it. I agree it could/should maybe be 3 stars. I don't know if it's really more difficult, you just have to get how the puzzle works to solve it.

There's a bunch of puzzles which use one trick/step/idea that if you get/see it make solving it much easier than if you don't. This one is impossible if you try to use your regular fillomino techniques at the start.
I never know how to rate those puzzles though. Because if everyone sees the trick, they'll say it's much easier, but if people have trouble seeing it, they'll say it's much harder.

Yeah, it's not really easy but it's possible to create patterns which could create a valid kakuro, like the one below. You can switch around columns and rows as you please, but it will always have this basis for it.
I haven't actually tried this, because I find it kinda silly to have 1-cell sums in a kakuro.

Code:

 .....x.....
 .x.........
 ..x........
 ...x.......
 ....x......
 x.........x
 ......x....
 .......x...
 ........x..
 .........x.
 .....x.....

Yeah, what c4 said. I remember verifying this one and it took ages to find the opening, but you can see how it's built up when you continue from there. It's one of those builders' tricks.

Probably not to interest of many, but I like it. This puzzle has the maximum number of cells to be filled you can have in an 11 by 11 grid without having 1 cell sums.

Number: Puzzle #1748
Genre: Kakuro
Author: Bram
Appeared at: December 2, 2010