(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
This short stretch of Outside Sudoku puzzles continues with an interesting Three’s A Crowd Sudoku idea where only two of the three clues in each outside position are valid.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 52nd puzzle from Bill Murphy, 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. Some sets of three numbers are given outside the grid. Two of the three numbers must appear in the first three cells in the corresponding direction, while the third number must not appear in those cells.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Second Saurolophus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:05, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Outside Sudoku puzzles. More Outside Sudoku puzzles can be found in Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 4.

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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Today’s GAS is a seemingly simple Irregular Sudoku, but can you find a way to view all the logic in this “Gilded Mirror.”

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Gilded Mirror

Author/Opus: This is the 72nd puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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).

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:00; One party hat (🥳): 11:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: golden Gideonmantellia.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:44, 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 and solving video with explanation 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.

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
Here is another challenge that was hidden within our Sudoku puzzlehunt. We’re setting up a live endgame stream later this year with the winning team of the puzzlehunt, and wanted to share more of the special puzzles they solved in advance.

After solvers discovered and interacted with a Google Doc here, they got a set of apparent Cave puzzles. Note: this puzzle resolves to a 9-letter string but not an English word/phrase so without playing in the puzzlehunt this won’t have meaning to you.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)

Rules: In these caves, horizontal portals lead to horizontal portals, and vertical portals lead to vertical portals, with orange going to blue and vice versa. No portals in midair; always have them attached to a wall of the cave.

Note: 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 the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Today’s GAS raises the temperature a bit with a combination of Thermo-Sudoku and the puzzle genre Skyscrapers.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: High Rising Temps

Author/Opus: This is the 41st puzzle from Philip Newman, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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. Also, as in the puzzle Skyscrapers, each number in the grid represents the height of a building and the clues on the outside of the grid indicate how many buildings can be “seen” when looking from that direction. Taller buildings block the view of smaller buildings. For example, if a row contained the numbers 198432675, then two buildings are seen from the left – 1 and 9 – and four buildings from the right – 5, 7, 8 and 9 – with the other buildings blocked by taller buildings in front of them.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Built Bashunosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:50, 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 and solving video with explanation 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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
In this variation of Arrow Sudoku, there are no apparent “arrows” because both ends have turned into bulbs. The sum of numbers on the path equals the sum in both bulbs.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Double Nickels on the Dime

Author/Opus: This is the 37th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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). The numbers along each path must sum to the same total as the two numbers in the bulbs at the ends of the path.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Minute Mendozasaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:12, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Arrow Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Arrow Sudoku to get started on. More Arrow Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Bill Murphy has constructed this extra large grid but only taking the numbers from 1-9. Call you fill in all the white space successfully?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 30th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 15:00; One party hat (🥳): 30:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Extra Einiosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 5:14, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
This puzzle combines two puzzle types (Nonograms and Sudoku) and it will be even more “approachable” if you carefully consider that in advance, because there are lots of givens on the left but no givens in the Sudoku grid on the right at the start.

PDF

or solve online (horizontal form, using SudokuPad)
or solve online (vertical form, using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 29th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: This puzzle is a combination of Paint It Black (Nonogram) puzzles and Sudoku, where the cells shaded/highlighted when solving the Nonogram contain numbers to transfer to the empty grid to form a valid classic Sudoku.

Specifically: The grid on the left is a Nonogram. Shade some cells so that the numbers outside the grid indicate the groups of consecutive shaded cells which are in that row or column in order, either from left to right or from top to bottom. There must be at least one white cell between any consecutive shaded groups. Rows and columns without outside clues can have any pattern of shaded and unshaded cells. Transfer the numbers in all shaded cells to the right grid, and then solve the right grid as a Sudoku. Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 9:00; One party hat (🥳): 18:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Rolling Staurikosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:44, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
There is something extra going on to organize the numbers in each Killer cage in this “Hidden Arrows” variation by clover! Can you calculate all the numbers to get to the solution?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 50th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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, the sum of the numbers in each cage must equal the value given in the upper-left corner of that cage. Numbers cannot repeat inside a cage. Each cage has a hidden arrow (as in Arrow Sudoku) with a circled cell at one end of the cage and an arrow path that travels through edge-adjacent cells through all other cells in the cage. The value in the circled cell must equal the sum of all other numbers in the cage (as would be on the arrow’s path).
(For example, in this puzzle, either R4C3 = R4C4+R4C5 or R4C5 = R4C4+R4C3.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:00; One party hat (🥳): 11:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: bowing Bistahieversor.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:01, 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 and solving video with explanation 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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Bill Murphy brings a clever, bendy version of Sudoku reminiscent of our familiar Shape Sudoku variant. Can you twist and turn your thinking to get everything to fit?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 26th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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, each band outside of the grid must be put into the grid, with some bends and rotations needed to make them fit exactly to an interior band of matching length, labeling the interior bands with the same numbers in the same relative positions.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 8:00; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Hey Big Spinophorosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:54, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
This Sudoku puzzle combines the logic of the shading puzzle genre Tapa to the odd numbers. Can you still solve it?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: It’s All Connected

Author/Opus: This is the 27th puzzle from Philip Newman, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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, all cells with odd numbers must form a Tapa, a single connected wall made out of orthogonally adjacent cells, but without any 2×2 square fully part of the Tapa.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 10:00; One party hat (🥳): 25:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: August Australodocus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 4:56, 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 and solving video with explanation 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.