(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Sometimes the first workday after a long holiday (like the recent Thanksgiving in the US) can throw you for a loop. We don’t know if that is clover’s motivation today, but this combination of a Loop puzzle and a Sudoku will make you think more creatively than usual.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad; while this puzzle can be solved without drawing the loop directly, you will likely want to enable the Pen tool in SudokuPad to be able to sometimes draw loop segments. This can be done by hitting the gear icon for settings above the numpad interace, and then at the top of that in “Tools” selecting “Enable Pen Tool”. In the numpad interface this will now put a square icon containing a circle and a bent line indicating “Pen” somehow right next to the big 9 used to select the main number entry. Hitting those adjacent icons should let you alternate between entering numbers and loop segments. If you know how to make SudokuPad default to having the Pen on and/or the confetti off, you are a better wizard than us and we’d love to know how.)

Theme: Tangled Up in Loop

Author/Opus: This is the 81st puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region. Also, draw a single, non-intersecting loop that passes through all cells except for the gray central cell, moving only up, down, left, or right between cells. The loop must travel straight through every cell with an odd number and turn in every cell with an even number.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 10:00; One party hat (🥳): 20:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: knotty Nodosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:00, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF; solving video with explanation to be added later from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.