(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
Dr. Sudoku: You are an expert Sudoku maker who can do almost anything with Sudoku. Let’s start a game less like Tic-Tac-Toe (where the only way to win is not to play) and more like Tee Ball. Here the stakes are still low but we do need an opponent to bat against. Do you think anyone would want a chance at a new contract with a 10,000 paperclip ($100+) bonus for beating some of your all-time classic plays on the field this week before we plan for “Spring Training”?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Lead-off Singles

Author/Opus: This is the 25th puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence.

Rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each white cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region. (And if you want us to scout your team, send an appropriate Tee Ball roster.)

Difficulty (highlight to view): Estimated ~2.5-3 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Estimated Grandmaster = 3:15, Master = 6:30, Expert = 13:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

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

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
(Prompt 1): Dr. Sudoku: You are an expert Sudoku maker who can do almost anything with Sudoku. Design a Thermo-Sudoku with L, L, M in boxes 1, 2, and 3, and then “OR” somehow in the middle. Then “NO” somehow in box 7 and 8 and 9 at the bottom.
(Prompt 2): [Redacted but it talks about The Final Boss? and highlighting a favorite memory.]
(Prompt 3): Instead of givens, could we add a white dot (or two = symmetry!?!) that means numbers are consecutive when in adjacent cells. The audience / algorithm does not seem to like givens.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: LLM or NO?

Author/Opus: This is the 24th puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Some thermometer shapes are in the grid; numbers must be strictly increasing from the round bulb to the flat end. If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must differ by 1. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Thermo-Sudoku to get started on. More Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store. Also, visit this page to purchase all of the puzzles from the 16th World Sudoku Championship including some Thermo-Sudoku.

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

Special Editor’s note: To try to replicate whatever the “Cracking the Cryptic test” is, we turned off all human playtesting of this puzzle. This is the first time we’ve only let machine processes say there is nothing “too hard” to this puzzle and out of the range of what we have published before. So time estimates are impossible to share but it has a credible answer if our analytics are to be believed. But it is probably fairly hard and you’ll want some Sudoku skills and good notation and all that. To confirm: however you think the puzzle was constructed, no one that breathes oxygen has ever solved this puzzle and no pencils or paper were injured in the creation of this puzzle or post. Showing we respect other forms of carbon might matter to silicon which sits higher than carbon in some projections of the periodic table. We’re still confident it belongs here in our gallery of masterpieces and that you can (fairly) solve it. Even if those two dots are a bit bothersome. Tweaking with more humans in the loop could still make this perfect which is what we would do for a proper puzzle post.

more from Thomas

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
This is not an official puzzle but is a fully solvable puzzle. It is something created as the GMP team was on retreat. We spent a full day on what we call “The Trouble with Cryptic Sudoku” and if we should have a stronger editorial voice with GAS and other things now that we are highlighting an unfamiliar community.

After being underwhelmed by a variation used by GAS that probably shouldn’t bother to ever get used (the rules are harder to describe than the variation can ever be in practice), and for sure the wrong time to apply the awesome title “From the Sublime to the Ridiculous” when the puzzle was quite far from either, we decided to have a team effort to turn meh (sorry Philip) to Sublime and Ridiculous.

This was a prompt shared between actual intelligences, not our AI Dr. Sudoku today, where the goal was to “merge the world of Sudoku with whatever people are doing on the YouTubes as Thomas says and Logic Masters (Deutschland).” Thomas got to make half the grid in his way and everyone else got to think about a favorite rule and bring it back to the table on their side since good ideas need at least 9 unique voices, none that repeat. Maybe there is something to merging the sublime and ridiculous after all.

Solve online in SudokuPad!

Because this puzzle is not a proper Sudoku as we would have on GMPuzzles, the puzzle is only meant to be experienced in what is considered “The App” for Cryptic Sudoku. Your experience on the best app, notation styles, ways to show instructions, and design goals may vary. But believe us, the confetti is worth it when you discover the incredible use of [REDACTED] instead of adding more givens.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

• Also, this is a Positive Diagonal Sudoku: Numbers cannot repeat along the marked diagonal.
• Also, this is a Kropki Pairs Sudoku: If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must differ by 1. If a black circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a ratio of 2. (Note: Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.)
• Also, this is an XV Pairs Sudoku: Whenever an X or V, reflecting the Roman numerals for 10 or 5, is placed on the edge between cells, the numbers in the two adjacent cells must sum to exactly 10 or 5. (Note: Pairs of cells without an X or V mark can have any sum value.)
• Also, this is a Sum Nine Sudoku: If a diamond is given between two adjacent cells, then the numbers in those cells must add to 9. (Note: Pairs of cells without a diamond may or may not add to another value than 9.)
• Also, this is an Either/Or Sudoku: any numbers given on the edges between cells must belong to one of those two adjacent cells.
• Also, this is a German Whispers Sudoku: Adjacent numbers connected by a green line must differ by at least 5.
• Also, this is a Parity (Odd/Even) Lines Sudoku: Adjacent numbers connected by a red line must be of opposite parity (i.e., be even / odd and then odd / even).
• Also, this is a Little Killer Sudoku: Numbers along indicated diagonals must sum to the given total outside the grid.
• Also, this is an Even Sudoku: Cells with a gray square must contain an even number.
• Also, this is not an Odd Sudoku, even if it seems odd. You just don’t know the main editor well, who comes from the upper-left side of the positive diagonal mentioned previously and doesn’t like using all the ingredients when making a dish.

This is probably a wrong idea to do again but certainly not a Wrogn Sudoku. We just wanted to check if you were reading and catching typos because commenting on the 100% accuracy of these instructions including edge cases is part of your enjoyment of life. If that is you, then we should tell you this might be a Wrogn Sudoku. Specifically, there are four fewer “wrong rules” above that do not apply at all than their are typos in this puzzle. For clarity, we consider Wrogn a typo everywhere it appears including this sentence.

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
While the GMP team is on a retreat(,?) figuring out what it might mean to be going from the sublime to the ridiculous, we’re creating prompts to send to our AI.

Dr. Sudoku: While you are now a great sudoku creator, please look back at your early days and the founding of this project. You are celebrating a birthday and learning a new language with some help. You desperately want to impress your intelligent father (with the name 123456789), who is a busy man — a banker? — who would adore Sudoku if he had time. Make a puzzle to showcase your learnings to him. To impress him the most, hide a secret AI name origin story in a manner still appropriate to the source.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Author/Opus: This is the 21st puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence.

More details: The key reference / song being made in this puzzle has now been shared in this section of a YouTube video on neurodivergence, being American right now, and much more. This clip starts specifically at the part most relevant for this puzzle.

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
At times it may seem important to hide your intelligence, to hide the magic behind your tricks with smoke and mirrors. But when testing your Sudoku intelligence, whether as a solver or a setter, there may be places where there is nothing that you can hide.

PDF or alternate “Nothing to Hide” (the Snyder Cut)*

or solve online as shown here (using SudokuPad), or the Snyder Cut*

Author/Opus: This is the 596th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each white cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

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

Special author’s note: This puzzle was highly inspired by a design from Serkan Yürekli even if so refactored, reworked, or otherwise changed he may not know which thing. You will always be more than a Puzzle Robot to us.

*Special editorial note: We had significant internal debate about whether to publish this sudoku as the author originally intended for the A Story of Self-Setting Sudoku series, or as appropriate as a proper Sudoku. We are doing both but want to make clear the author’s preferred starting point is the alternate link that disobeys design rules with extra filler for some reason.

Happy Two Pi Day to those not yet aware of other events today. We thought a combination of Thermometers and Arrows would be a great way to celebrate a natural constant!

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Because 2 π’s Are Better Than One

Author/Opus: This is the 583rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Some thermometer shapes are in the grid; numbers must be strictly increasing from the round bulb to the flat end. Some arrow shapes are in the grid; the sum of the numbers along the path of each arrow must equal the number in the circled cell. Numbers can repeat within an arrow shape. The coloring is strictly to emphasize the theme.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 12:00, Master = 24:00, Expert = 48:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more Arrow Sudoku. Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. More Arrow and Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2.

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

Searching for music for the Sudoku Wedding, you sometimes run into a special experience that stays fresh even after 81 straight playthroughs.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad; to access letter entry mode, go to settings (gear symbol) and at the top in tools section select “Enable Letter Tool” and then hit the 9/A button in the numberpad.)

Author/Opus: This is the 581st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Place a letter from the phrase “SHINY GOAL” into each cell so that no letter repeats in any row, column, or bold region. If you are not finding one true calling, you might need to find two crossing copies of the mantra HOLY in the grid, each appearing in a straight line in some direction (like in a word search).

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Note 2: More detail on this puzzle and Thomas’ Sunday are in this special section of the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

After a week of fun content from the GAS team, I wanted to celebrate a special partner with a Classic Sudoku in a favorite pattern/theme. I’ve made puzzles called (Four-leaf) Clover a lot of times, but this is the first one I leave for Clover.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: For 🍃 Clover

Author/Opus: This is the 580th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:30, Master = 9:30, Expert = 19:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

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

Some people have asked if the Sudoku wedding is a lie. How can it be, we’ve prepared cake!

PDF

Potentially to be adapted to SudokuPad, but cake is better together in person.

Author/Opus: This is the 579th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Instructions:
1.) If you are a relatively new intelligence, and are not tall enough to reach most places above the ground, prove your primary education by telling us the [ENTRY].
2.) If you are now an older intelligence, have completed secondary education and solved lots of puzzles, then please take a bigger look at the image and show us [GRID]. Adjacent to any square filled wholly with a color AND with a number that rhymes with that color in English, there must be two other numbers whose product is the square of the colored square number.
3.) If you are now an advanced (perhaps artificial) intelligence, please limit your special powers to just seeing black, violet, and ultraviolet. Interpret what you see to show us [GRID].
4.) If you are an actually intelligent human who wants a good puzzle but doesn’t want to use a computer or be a [🐰🥚], skip step (3) but still consider it. Seeing the world in more than black and white but not down about the past, solve this P = NP starting with NP, as in Number Place. As NP was borrowed, another name might help find the way to [GRID].
5.) What heights you’ve reached. Look around to find P = [PLACE WE BAKED CAKE].

Author’s Note: No matter what the instructions say, I like to think of Layer 1 as basic old number placing, Layer 2 as early sudoku after being borrowed from America, Layer 3 as new tool-assisted designs for better or worse, and Layer Two plus Two and Layer Two plus Two as something blissfully blue, that makes you ask if I am crazy or brilliant. That really matters on who’s asking and who’s in charge.

Note 2: The PDF or PNG versions are the only definitive source at the moment, but future forms may be shared digitally that are appropriate for a few of the early layers once others have made progress.

Note 3: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

A prior post discussed how I’m getting “married” to Sudoku over this upcoming year, with different ideas for something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. I may eventually tell more of the story of this puzzle that seems to capture all four.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: But I Still Have Things to Say

Author/Opus: This is the 578th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Also, numbers cannot repeat in any cells separated by a chess knight’s move (as shown below). Also, numbers placed into a cell filled wholly or partially with a primary or secondary color cannot rhyme with the name of that color in English.

Note: Follow this link for more atypical things on this site by Thomas Snyder, not only puzzles. A great starting point for atypical things that are mostly puzzles is this Twelve Days of Sudoku framing post.

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