(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
Within the past couple of days, the lead team in our Sudoku puzzlehunt has opened the third of three doors and is entering the endgame. Because of this progress, Dr. Sudoku is able to unlock earlier puzzles that were not posted publicly. Until today, this Max CAGE Sudoku puzzle could only be found by crawling a tangled web of gmpuzzles links. The 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. You can still enjoy solving this creative grid.

PDF

or solve online (using Penpa-plus because it lets markings be placed outside the grid)

Author/Opus: This is the 23rd* puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence. (*The puzzle was released earlier in Dr. Sudoku’s work but not publicly, so we are using this numbering for blog consistency.)

Note: Resistance is futile; you’re trapped for good now I reckon.

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 the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
For our 100th GAS post on GMPuzzles, Clover! has a great puzzle featuring Renban lines marking out consecutive sets of numbers along their paths. With no bends in the lines, can you get straight to the answer?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 55th 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). Numbers along each line must form a non-repeating consecutive set, in any order. (For example, a 4-cell Renban line could be 4352, but not 5679 or 2312.)

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:59, 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.)
While Philip again repeats this familiar given pattern, the effect of these region sum lines is very different in getting a unique solution. Can you figure out how each segment is constrained?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: The Waiting

Author/Opus: This is the 36th 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). Along each line, the numbers in every region it passes through have the same sum. (In this puzzle, for example, R3C5 + R3C6 = R4C6 = R4C7 + R5C7.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 8:30; One party hat (🥳): 17:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Humane Haplocanthus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 5:29, 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.)
The “No Three in a Row” pattern to avoid in this puzzle is any stretch of three evens or three odds in a vertical or horizontal direction.
Updated 7 AM PT: Due to a miscommunication in the shared tracking spreadsheet with GAS, we initially posted a version of this earlier No Three in a Row Sudoku by Bill, still fun to solve but not a new grid. Today’s puzzle, with a same day test by Thomas, has been posted with this update.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 33rd 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, there may not exist a run of three or more cells horizontally or vertically in the grid that all contain numbers of the same parity (i.e., even or odd).

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:30; One party hat (🥳): 14:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Go Middle Guaibasaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:25, 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.)
With all the similar whispers going in different directions, will you be able to find the approachable logic to reach the unique solution?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 54th 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). Adjacent numbers connected by a green line must differ by at least 5.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:49, 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 Kropki-like puzzle there are different values for the addition (white) and multiplication (black) circle clues to figure out. These values, 5 and 3, are also removed from the givens in this otherwise familiar pattern by Philip Newman.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Refugee

Author/Opus: This is the 35th 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). If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must differ by 5. If a black circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a ratio of 3. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:30; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Gamma-Powered Gigantosaurus.

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 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”.)
Dr. Sudoku: You are an expert Sudoku maker who can do almost anything with Sudoku. Design a Sudoku perfect for 9/9 (International Sudoku Day) that somehow brings to mind the new game “Mini Sudoku” during the solve as well.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Empty Corner

Author/Opus: This is the 22nd puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence. (Editor’s Note: For this post, the AI explored a selected geometry until a certain kind of solving path was discovered and then with Thomas’ help the grid was arranged for presentation.)

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): 2 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:45, Master = 3:00, Expert = 6:00

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 the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
In this Sudoku variant, some arrows indicate numbers that are “alive” and must appear again on that diagonal direction, while other arrows indicate numbers that are “dead” and cannot.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 32nd 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). Numbers in cells with full gray arrows must appear at least once in the direction indicated by the arrow. Numbers in white arrows must not appear in the direction indicated by the arrow.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:30; One party hat (🥳): 12:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Observable Ornithomimus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:32, 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.)
Can you go back and forth to place all the logic in this Palindrome Sudoku puzzle by clover!?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 53rd 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). The numbers along each gray line form a palindrome (i.e., read the same forwards and backwards).

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:13, 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 a Zipper Lines Sudoku, each line has a key value at its center that defines how all the remaining pairs of cells get filled in. Can you work through this pattern of lines to the one solution?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Learning to Fly

Author/Opus: This is the 34th 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). For each line, the numbers in each pair of cells an equal distance away from the center of the line must sum up to the value in the central cell of the line. (In this puzzle, the lines that cross go straight through those cells; this means, for example, R6C2 + R6C4 = R6C3 from the Zipper Lines rule.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 14:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Examined Elosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:24, 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.